Blood Contract
by draconichero21
Summary: Lucy takes a job that turns out to be a hoax causing her to sign a contract in blood. This blood contract forces Lucy to become the willing slave of her hideous would-be client. Can Natsu and the others save her from her fate? Takes place before the Edolas arc. Rated M for explicit adult themes.
1. Signing Your Life Away

**(A/N: I need to stop making new projects without finishing old ones, but this project is relatively short. Before we begin, let me start by saying that I don't have anything against Lucy to put her in these situations she'll face. In fact, I find myself liking the Natsu/Lucy pairing to begin with. This, does not, however, mean that I am a diehard Lucy/Natsu fan. For those of you rabid Natsu/Lisana fans, if the mood struck I could just as easily write a story for that one too, but this idea just happened to come to me in a dream…no seriously. The first chapter I completely dreamed up and the rest of the fic wrote itself. This takes place before the Tendou Island arc, obviously, and after the Orocion Seis arc. It will involve OCs and it will have some very DARK elements to the point where you want to do to me what many would STILL like to do to Raven Tail despite Laxus' actions. Now then, with that said, since I don't think I'm forgetting anything: enjoy).**

Disclaimer: Fairy Tail belongs to Mashima

* * *

**Fairy Tail Guild**

Lucy Heartfilia, low on funds yet again to pay the rent, was checking the job board for good paying jobs. She stood in front of the bulletin board with a puzzled look while Mirajane cleaned the bar table and business was business as usual in the guild house. Lucy looked all across the board until her eye landed upon a job that spoke to her. It was a request asking for the submission and escort of a specified individual to be brought to a specific location. The reward was 700,000 jewels. It was just too good to be true considering the class assignment of the job was a D.

"You want it?" Mirajane asked with a smile seeing Lucy holding the flyer in her hand. "Go ahead and take it. Turn it over though, there's a specific request from the client to meet in person before heading out."

"That seems rather redundant," Lucy said, seeing as how most jobs often started with meeting the client.

"It's not required to meet the client of any given job except to collect the reward and not everyone operates with the same moral prowess that we do," Mirajane put in.

"Then I'm officially taking this request," Lucy said.

Mirajane got out a book from under the bar table to make it official. "Are you sure you don't want to wait for Natsu?" she asked as she made an official record.

Natsu was currently out in town for some reason or another. Knowing him, Lucy figured he might be getting lunch or up to his usual antics. Even so, "It seems easy enough that I can handle this myself."

"Right, see you later then," Mirajane said. She closed the record book as Lucy headed off and out the door. She then looked over to where Gray was sitting at a table, stripped down to his boxer shorts as usual. Juvia was out on a mission of her own else she probably would've been keeping a close eye on him, if not trying to sit in his lap. "I'm surprised you didn't pick up that contract yourself Gray. Aren't you low on personal funds?"

"Yeah, yeah," Gray said, scratching the back of his neck. He then put his arm down and continued by saying, "To be honest though that request seemed a little fishy to me." Another truth was that Juvia had promised to split her profits from her current job with Gray no matter how many times he had told her she didn't have to do that and despite her insistence to take her with him. Gray had to fake a stomach ache and only was now in the bar area once he was sure she was gone. It's not that he didn't want to go with her, but he just felt that his presence would add nothing to the mission. A couple of the members teased him about it, Elfman especially, saying how Gray would've had one on one time with a girl with an obvious interest in him, but Gray's response was to tell them to shove it.

"What do you mean by fishy?" Mirajane asked.

Gray shrugged. "That amount of pay for such a low rank? I don't know, maybe I'm paranoid, but something about that just doesn't seem right."

"Why didn't you say anything?"

"Would it have mattered? How does my funny feeling affect anyone, but me in this case? Besides, Lucy's a big girl. She can handle herself."

However, little did Gray know, that he was right to be suspicious and, had he stopped Lucy and the whole crisis that followed would've been averted, but he didn't, it happened and so the tale unfolds.

* * *

Leaving Magnolia for a nearby town to the west, Lucy found a nice looking mansion with the address identical to the one she was supposed to meet her client at. She was reminded of the time she and Natsu broke into mansion of the Duke of Everlue considering there was a gate out front and a large mansion contained within.

If that wasn't creepy enough, Lucy was greeted by a maid at the door. Thankfully this maid had the same type of refined beauty as herself and not the Duke's warped perceptions. She had long green hair and eyes and was wearing the stereotypical maid uniform. "Greetings, madam," the maid bowed, "Are you here for Gant-sama's request?"

"Yes," Lucy said showing the request form.

The maid opened the door fully and gestured for Lucy to enter into the fantabulous looking foyer consisting of a red carpet, crystal chandelier, chess-board themed tile floors, white walls and ceiling and black leather couches with a black marble coffee table. There was a large staircase in the back leading up to the second floor. _Whoa_. Lucy thought to herself.

"Please have a seat," the maid said as she crossed her arms over each other down at her pelvis and bowed slightly. "I shall fetch the master."

As the maid walked away, and Lucy sat down, she couldn't help but think as to how robotic the woman's voice and tone sounded. She wondered what kind of person this 'Gant' was like and if he was as refined as his mansion and his maid led Lucy to believe him to be.

Unfortunately, fate was not to be so kind to her. From the east wing, came a rotund, slovenly man with large lips, missing as much teeth as a family of inbred, backwater hicks, balding, with black hair on the sides, a big nose, and a swollen left eye. He had very hairy arms with cracks in his nails and his suit seemed two sizes too small as he sat down with the suit not fully covering his body and the sleeves only coming down to his elbows. Two buttons had burst and it looked like a third might soon if he gained any more weight. The couch sagged as he sat down.

"Oh my," he spoke with a slight lisp caused by the lack of teeth and the abundance of saliva sloshing around in his mouth. "You are very lovely…very lovely indeed. How can I help you Miss…"

"Lucy," Lucy answered, doing her best not to be revolted at the sight of her client. That was not the Fairy Tail way. They took requests of all shapes and sizes and did their best to remain professional. That didn't mean it made Lucy comfortable with the situation, as she was currently having a really bad case of déjà vu. Only this time the ugly man with the regal mansion and the maids was her client. "I-I'm here about the request form." She handed the job request form to Gant who took it and smiled as he rubbed his large hand underneath his chin.

"Ah, yes this. I was wondering when I would get someone to answer it. I thought I put up enough of a reward, are guilds really this picky about missions these days, I wonder?"

"About that, it didn't say who I was supposed to subdue and why I'm being asked to subdue them. It also said on the back you wanted to meet with me in person."

"Oh yes, yes indeed, of course." Gant dropped the paper on the ground. He snapped his fingers. "Fetch me a contract, Sasami, would you please darling?"

"Yes sir," the green haired maid responded.

"Contract?" Lucy asked.

"I send out requests to guilds all the time and I always like to get my volunteer helpers written agreement that they'll do the job. That way I can ensure that the job is going to be taken care of. Some may call it an inability to trust those that I hire. I call it: insurance."

Sasami brought a group of papers with her to Gant and handed it to them. "Here you are, Gant-sama."

"Thank you, Sasami. That will be all."

"Yes master, I understand." Sasami bowed and then left the area to tend to her other duties.

Gant handed Lucy the pieces of paper. "Be sure to read everything carefully. You wouldn't want to accidentally sign off on something you didn't mean to now would you?"

Lucy counted the pages first and saw that she was holding a stack of seven. "Are you sure you need a contract this big?"

"I'm a business man," Gant replied, "Such is my way."

"Well, all right." Lucy wanted to do her best to respect the client's wishes. She began to read.

* * *

Meanwhile back at the guild, Natsu was walking in with a gigantic fish over his head. It was so big that the tail was outside the guild and Natsu was holding the head by the bar.

"What the hell is this?" Gray exclaimed.

Natsu ignored him and spoke directly to Mirajane. "Tell master that this should solve our fish shortage for the next couple of days."

"Days? This should have us covered for several weeks!" Levy shouted.

Natsu looked around, ignoring the outcries of the gigantic fish he just brought into the guild and found that the guild house was shy a certain blonde. "Where's Lucy?" he asked, side of his hand on his forehead, scanning for her, "I don't see her."

"You just missed her," Mirajane said all bubbly. "She took a job while you were out."

"Oh, which job?" Natsu asked and then looked to the closest person that wasn't busy. "Hey, Elfman, could you help me move this to storage?"

Wordlessly, and still in shock, but happy to get it out of the dining area, Elfman went outside to pick up the tail end. "Yeah, this is a man's job."

Now answering Natsu's question as he slowly guided the big fish towards the backroom, Mirajane said, "Oh she took a rare, really easy high paying job for the submission and escort of the defeated."

Natsu stopped moving. "Wait, not the D-class one for seven hundred thousand?"

"Uh yeah, why? Is there a problem?"

"Hey, if you wanted it Nastu," Gray said in a mocking tone, "You should've taken it this morning."

Abruptly Natsu dropped the big fish, causing the tail to drop on Elfman's foot like a rock. Natsu had a serious look on his face. "When I was in town earlier, I overheard people talking about a scam job that's being used to fool inept mages. I was curious so I asked for details." Natsu pointed to the board and raised his voice. "It turns out it was the exact job that Lucy just set out on!"

Many members of the guild were shocked. "Are you sure?" Gray asked.

"Positive," Natsu said. Remembering all the details of the job from that morning, Natsu headed off out the door nearly knocking Elfman over. "Happy!"

"Aye sir!" Happy lifted Natsu off the ground and took to the air. "Do we really need to be going after Lucy, Natsu?" Happy understood Lucy's strength as a mage. "Is she really in danger?" Natsu wasn't responding and just kept a straight face and his arms outstretched in front of him. "Natsu?"

* * *

Lucy finished reading the contract, finding nothing fishy about it. The contract started by saying that she was to apprehend a low ranking mage by the name of Trixie Mescearl, for the crime of theft, and to bring her back to Gant, along with the stolen item. The rest was just details and terms and conditions and other agreements that a lot of people skipped over these days when signing contracts, but Lucy read it all, despite how mind numbing it was.

Looking up from the contract she said, "Do you have a pen that I can sign with?"

"Oh, right, where are my manners?" Gant said, reaching into the folds of his suit and handing Lucy a quill, ink pen. "This should suffice your needs, Lucy-san." However, as Lucy reached for the pen, Gant turned it sideways so that the tip pricked Lucy when she grasped hold of it. She recoiled back her hand only to notice that her palm was bleeding and, in the next instant, blood began to leave her hand and printed her signature on the final page of the contract.

"My apologies, I'll get a bandage for you in a moment. Oh, and of course, the receipt as specified in the contract, should you choose to void our agreement." Gant handed Lucy a business card sized piece of paper, but when Lucy grabbed it the contract she had signed, now floating in midair changed much like the enchanted book owned by the Duke of Everlue. Only it wasn't an enchantment to rearrange the letters, rather it was an illusion enchantment to make the contract appear as a different contract altogether. As the letters rearranged themselves, one statement at the bottom of the last page became perfectly clear:

"I hereby willingly agree to become the unquestionable slave of Mavon Gant:" followed by Lucy's signature written in blood. Promptly, Lucy's instinct response was to rise to her feet, but in the next moment, Lucy's "receipt" stuck itself to her throat and faded from view. Lucy started to feel a combination of light-headedness, slight nausea, and her body was burning up from the inside. "I feel funny," Lucy said weakly and slumped to her feet in a trance.

"That's understandable. The contract you just signed makes you my complete and obedient slave. Right now it's rearranging the magic in your body to create a psionic link between us. When it's finished you will obey my every command and even now your magic is slowly falling under my control."

"Slowly falling?" Lucy asked tersely. "So then I still have some free will?"

"Technically speaking," Gant responded.

"Then," Lucy rose to her feet, grabbed one of her keys and shouted, "Open the gate of the giant crab! Cancer!"

Emerging from the call and the opening of the gate, cancer rushed to attack Gant on Lucy's behalf, but with a simple lifting his hand into the air there was a puff of smoke and suddenly Cancer took the appearance of a Crab dish complete with rice pilaf and a side of vegetables.

"Ebi?"

Lucy's expression had "what the hell" written all over it.

"I told you before, your magic is slowly becoming linked to me, that means I can control your magic and since Celestial Spirits can take the form of their master's wishes I wanted to have a nice crab dinner."

_That's disgusting! _Lucy shouted in her head at the top of her lungs. She sent Cancer back and grabbed another key. "Open the gate of the Golden Bull! Taurus!" The gigantic bovine spirit charged towards Gant with his mighty axe only for him to take the form of a gigantic ham, despite ham being pork and Taurus being a cow, with his head in place of the bone. _This is ridiculous! _Obviously summoning any of her animal-akin spirits wouldn't do anything and given Virgo's apparel Lucy didn't even want to think what sort of Ecchi things might happen to her. She always wanted to be punished and Lucy had the feeling that Gant might do just that.

Based on Gant's statements, despite Gemini probably being her best shot at freedom, given that she could have them transform into Gant and revoke the contract, Lucy was afraid that she wouldn't be able to control them. However, she wasn't about to give up. She still had her trump card. "Open the gate of the Lion! Leo!" In a flash, Loke appeared, looking ready to deliver a serious smack down. The look of worry on Gant's face gave Lucy the idea that she was right to suspect that Loke could bail her out: despite being a celestial spirit, Loke had his own sense of free will, and was not bound by the psionic link between Gant and Lucy.

"Wh-why can't I control you?" Gant gasped.

"Lucy and I may share a contract, but I am my own master. Your rules don't apply," Loke said, understanding the situation. He lunged forward and decked Gant right in the face sending him flying towards the east wing. Loke let fly a smirk across his lips only for it to switch to panic when he suddenly found himself unable to move.

From the east side of the foyer, Gant laughed while still sitting down. "Did you really think I wouldn't have created a clause for the unexpected? In fine print, page two, second paragraph, anyone who assaults the client while the contract is being completed," Gant held out his palm over the ground, "turns to stone." He made a fist with his hand and in a puff of smoke Loke disappeared replaced with a dark blue, stone statue.

Gant continued to laugh only for the whole building to shake and for the ceiling to collapse as debris fell from above as Natsu air dropped into the foyer, shattering the coffee table in the process.

"Natsu!" Lucy exclaimed only to notice that Natsu was about to attack. "Wait! Stop! If you attack now you'll end up like Loke!" Natsu stopped dead in his tracks and looked back over his shoulder to see the petrified celestial spirit.

Natsu looked at Gant with incredible ire. "You bastard, what did you do to Loke?"

"It's in the contract Lucy-san, signed. Anyone who assaults me while the contract is taking effect will be petrified on the spot." Gant conjured up the contract for Natsu to read.

Natsu read the fine print and then cracked his knuckles. "Then I'll just pummel you when it's finished, so long as there's no threat to Lucy's life."

"That would be ill advised," Gant flipped to another page of the contract and showed Natsu another clause. "For you see, once the contract is completed there is no way out of it unless by the consent of the contractor, that's me."

"Even if I kill you?" An extreme measure to be sure, but Natsu would use any means to ensure the safety and free will of his friend. It was a bluff for now, but some people tended to cave in. If Natsu had his bluff called or murder was a solution he was more than ready for it given the circumstances.

"Not unless you want your friend to die along with me," Gant said, flipping to another page, "If you kill me she dies too. That's part of the deal. And even if you try to burn up the contract with that flame of yours, mage-san," Gant said rather than refer to Natsu by name, "it will be reformed, text and all, using the blood of your friend there." It took Natsu every bit of restraint he could not to pummel Gant so that he didn't turn into a stone statue. "This is the fifteenth time I've succeeded in this scam and I'll continue to get away with it."

"There's no way you got Lucy to willingly sign herself away to this piece of garbage," Natsu glared.

"Oh, but that's the beauty of illusion magic. She had no idea what she was signing at first. Isn't that the part of every good scam? Now, why don't you run along back to your guild and do a job for its profit, you have no business here, mage."

"You bastard," Natsu said through gritted teeth. In the next moment, Lucy, Gant and the whole place except for Natsu, the statue formerly known as Loke, and the request form Lucy had brought with her, all began to vanish. "Transport magic?"

"I move my mansion from place to place with it. I can move all of my property within the mansion to where I want. Don't even try to take your friend out of the mansion," the pages turned in the contract to show another clause, "unless you feel like disappearing into the void of another dimension."

"Natsu!" Lucy called for him in worry.

"I will make you pay for this," Natsu continued to glare. "I _swear _it."

"To me, that sounds like the whining of a defeated dog." Gant said and laughed as he, the mansion and Lucy, disappeared, leaving Natsu in the middle of an open field, frustrated as could be. He ground his hands in the dirt and shouted to the sky in anger and frustration for not being able to protect Lucy.

* * *

Back at the Guild, Makarov was sitting on the bar counter as Gajeel and Elfman came up from the basement, both of which took up Natsu's job for escorting the giant fish and the former of which took the job of cutting it into little pieces while the latter put it all in the freezer. Makarov was currently deep in thought, wondering when Natsu would be back. Erza and Juvia had since returned from their missions recently and been informed of the situation. A lot of the members were walking on eggshells, some even had crossed fingers that Lucy would be all right and Natsu would come waltzing in triumphant with her slung over his shoulder.

However, what the guild received was not what the expected or even could have expected. Natsu returned all right, empty handed for one, and mad as a hornet for two. Upon leaving a searing dent in the entrance frame to the guild, Natsu flipped the nearest table in frustration.

Erza was quick to discipline and restrain forcing Natsu down and pinning him to the ground. "Hey! Cut it out! Obviously something didn't go right, but you don't need to take it out on the guild's infrastructure."

In a lapse of better judgment and with so much pent up aggression that he didn't care, Natsu lifted his leg and kicked Erza in the chin, sending her off him as he got to his feet and continued to scowl. He took a fighting stance, indicating he was in the mood to take his aggression out on someone.

Erza chortled and smiled devilishly. "You just made a big mistake." In the next instant Erza was standing tall and using her Heaven's Wheel Armor. Natsu meanwhile was imbuing his body with fire and created a gaping hole in the guild roof.

"H-hey you guys if you're going to do that, take it outside!" Jet urged.

Everyone began ducking for cover until Makarov stood between both Erza and Natsu to quell the fighting before it had even begun. "STOP!" Both Natsu and Erza let their guards down and stopped looking like they were ready to kill each other and just stood in fear of Makarov's thunderous voice. He looked at Natsu first. "Taking your anger out on the guild is no way to behave! Have your temper tantrum somewhere else, brat!" He looked at Erza, "And you, adding fuel to the fire by suiting up will only make things worse. Both of you cool off and we'll have a discussion about this later." Both Erza and Natsu, the latter reluctantly, obeyed. Natsu then turned and ran out of the guild and began running as fast as his legs would carry him, smashing up anything he could see once he was sure he was outside civilization. He razed and entire field in the process and replaced it with a canyon. He shouted and screamed in anger and frustration several times, even shooting his fire breath up into the air. All of the brutality he wanted to take out on Gant was now being used on the open air and field.

At the end of it all, Natsu sat down on the ground and cried. He cried while holding a hand to his face until he had no tears left. He could only think about how he had failed a friend and that there was nothing he could do, for once, to help her.

* * *

**A Few Days Later...**

Word spread about the scam job and its details. Scam jobs were prominent all throughout Fiore, this one just happened to be particularly heinous in its results. At Fairy Tail, Gajeel, Wendy, Erza, Gray, Mirajane, and Juvia were all talking with Makarov about a possible solution. Natsu, at the moment, was more than likely moping. He had not been himself since the incident. He hadn't taken on any jobs.

It was quite the serious problem. Natsu wouldn't do anything except eat in the last several days. Despite Gray and Gajeel's insults, Erza's willingness to challenge him to a fight of her own accord and even Happy's attempts to cheer the dragon slayer up, nothing worked. He just sat around and walked around the guild a shadow of his former self. Erza, Gray and Wendy had all spoken to Makarov about it, but the master's words were three words: "Give him time."

So here the seven mages were sitting around the dining hall discussing away about the crude effects of the aptly named "Blood Contract".

"What is a blood contract exactly, master?" Gray asked Makarov.

"A blood contract is a contract that binds the user to by the party being contracted signing their name in blood. Anyone who signs a blood contract is obligated to follow all of its terms and conditions or suffer the consequences. In Lucy-san's case, she was forced to become this man's slave." Natsu had already explained to the others after his temper fit about Lucy's situation. Only now though was everyone able to put the pieces together and have a more in-depth discussion about it.

"Gray-sama, if you made a blood contract I would sign my life away to you," Juvia cooed.

Gray rolled his eyes.

"Why don't we get the council involved?" Erza suggested. "Surely they have the power to void the contract."

"Even if we did go to the council, with our reputation it's unlikely they'd help us out, and, even if we did get them involved it's unlikely they could do anything. Despite the illusion magic, Lucy did sign it without being forced to. Blood Contracts are a tricky sort of magic. They bind the user's will to uphold the contract and all of its clauses."

"But if it's a contract, does that mean that it's not real magic?" Wendy asked.

"Oh, it's definitely real magic, a blood contract, I can safely say, couldn't be rightly created by any member of this guild without practice. Many politicians hire mages capable of it to create binding agreements to prevent the other from breaking it. If the contract is broken, bad things happen to the offending party. In Lucy's case she is contracted to be Mavon Gant's slave and serve him for all eternity. Breaking that contract would cost her her life since her life is what she has signed away."

"And this is legal?" Gajeel asked.

"Unfortunately, it is. Although, nowadays mostly dark guilds use this sort of magic."

"I can't believe this!" Erza stressed, following up her statement with a growl.

"Calm down, Erza," Makarov said calmly, "We'll think of something."

"I still can't believe that something like that could get one of our guild members," Gray mused.

"We get things like this all the time," Mirajane said, "However, this is the first time it's been so well hidden and had such a profound result."

"Yes I'm ashamed to admit that such a scam could slip by me like this. If anyone's going to be blamed it should be me."

"No one's blaming you, master," Erza stated. "If we start playing the blame game, we could throw it onto Natsu for not returning with the news sooner, Gray for not saying anything and Mirajane for not double checking. That won't get us anywhere closer to saving Lucy."

Makarov made a whining grunt indicating he agreed.

"Incidentally, master, what type of magic is a blood contract?" Mirajane wanted to know.

"It's a curse type of magic, a hex if you will."

"Then couldn't Wendy's sky magic do something?" Gajeel questioned.

"I don't know if my magic would work on something like this," Wendy said apologetically, "I'm sorry."

Before Makarov could say anymore a stern voice entered the conversation with, "Then…what about a way to cancel the contract or a mage who has the ability to overwrite it? If it's a curse-type magic, curses can be broken."

Everyone turned their heads to see Natsu standing beside the table with a glare, looking ready for action. "Are you feeling better Natsu?" Makarov asked.

"I've got a lot of pent up anger and need to take it out on someone. If we're finally ready to go save Lucy, then yeah, I'm feeling better." Natsu didn't smile a bit as he spoke.

"Natsu's right; there are mages that specialize in breaking curses," Mirajane piped up, "I hear Blue Pegasus has lots of specialists like that."

"Blue…Pegasus…" Erza said with a hint of dread in her voice.

"_Erza-san!"  
_Ichiya's voice resonated in her head.

"Last resort!" the Queen of the Fairies exclaimed adamantly, banging her fist on the table, without missing a beat.

"You know, there's no need to go knocking on the doors of those guys. I happen to know of a guild that has a mage perfect for this situation," Gajeel stated. Everyone looked at Gajeel who had a wicked smile on his face. "They're called Adventurer's Gauntlet."

* * *

**Gant's Mansion**

Lucy had been settling down to her lifestyle as Gant's servant for the past couple of days. She had to cow to his every whim and desire. Even her celestial spirits were being abused: most notably Aries, Virgo and even Aquarius, the last of which had already taken her anger out on Lucy for her "ineptitude".

Lucy had already thought about trying to run away once, but she simply couldn't leave the celestial spirits in peril like that, Aries especially, for Loke's sake. She talked to some of the other maids who had been here longer than her. As it turned out, Lucy still had a surprisingly high amount of free will compared to the others, who had been with Gant for so long all they could think about was serving him in any way possible. Lucy was told that her free will would eventually succumb to the master's as well too.

At night, Lucy would stay in her own room with three high bookshelves and a twin bed with a window that overlooked the moon rising in the evening. Twice before, and tonight, she would cry herself to sleep, if mostly because of what had become of Loke. Apparently he was trapped in that stone statue, unable to return to the spirit world and it bothered Lucy that he had wound up in that predicament because of her. She missed Natsu. She missed the guild. She wanted to go home. She even missed her dad.

* * *

**The Next Day**

**Out at sea**

In a boat owned by the guild: Natsu, Wendy, Gray, Erza, Happy, Carla, Gajeel, Juvia and Mirajane were all aboard en route to the island that Adventurer's Gauntlet made as their home. Natsu and Gajeel, though they would normally be sick to their stomachs from the transport, were relieved thanks to Wendy's Troia spell. It was so that Gajeel could explain what they were doing.

Natsu had gotten fired up and was back to normal the moment adventure was on the horizon. The group spent all of yesterday getting supplies for the trip and today, out at sea, they could now ask Gajeel about the guild they were going to visit.

"So how do you know about Adventurer's Gauntlet?" Erza asked, "And how can they help us?" She had heard of Adventurer's Gauntlet before. If her memory was correct, they were a small guild, less than twenty members, but they had some pretty potent mages.

"Back in my Phantom Lord days, couple years before we had our all-out brawl with you all, we had bad blood with another guild, the one we're going to see now. We were picking on them, nothing too serious. We had our fair share of in-fighting between us before things got crazy with Jose trying to rescue Lucy and turn her over to her father, nothing major though."

"How come they didn't come to our aid then if you guys were harassing us too? They say the enemy of my enemy is my friend," Erza stated.

"Probably because we had long since stopped by then," Gajeel answered her.

"You guys just stopped?" Natsu was in disbelief considering the long running bad blood with Phantom Lord and Fairy Tail.

"More like we were forced to stop. At one point Adventurer's Gauntlet's Guildmaster: Grimaios Eldrom, sometimes called simply The Archmage, had had just about enough of our actions and just waltzed into the guild. No barging in and breaking the door down, he just calmly knocked on the front door, we let him in. Dumb, dumb move," Gajeel laughed the last three words. He was smiling at this point. "So Grimaios walks straight up to Jose and flat out demands he lay off the guild. Jose responded by sicking the Elemental Four on him." Gajeel spread out his palm and swatted it towards the ground. "Whop. Down. All four of them. Blink of an eye. I counted: two point eight seconds."

"Ah, Juvia remembers that!" Juvia exclaimed. "That was the leader of Adventurer's Gauntlet?" Juvia began to remember the incident.

* * *

**Flashback**

The Phantom Lord guild had just let in a young looking man with orange-tan hair and gray eyes, looking to be in his 30s, into the guild. He was wearing a dusty, yellow robe with baggy sleeves that cascaded down towards his ankles where he wore brown leather shoes. The robe was a pull-over and drapped over the man completely. Attached to his back, he had a wooden staff, with a green gem embedded in the tip. His hair was combed back with a cowlick towards the back and his bangs hung over his eyes brushed more towards the right so that his right eye was covered. The man asked, very nicely and very calmly, to speak with Jose, the guildmaster and waited patiently. Everyone in the guild could sense the magic power coming off the man in the room so they were all quick to grant him an audience and let Jose deal with it.

Gajeel stood in the room for intimidation purposes as Jose sat down in a regal looking chair like he was some sort of king. Jose recognized the man as Grimaios, guild master of Adventurer's Gauntlet.

"And what does a piss poor guildmaster like yourself want with me?" Jose chuckled craftily.

"The attacks on my guild, I want them to stop," Grimaios spoke calmly, but the ire in his tone of voice was obvious.

"You think you're in a position to order me around?" Jose asked and with a snap of his fingers all four members of the elemental four showed up out of nowhere and began attacking Grimaios from all sides. Without even blinking Grimaios reached for the staff on his back and with a swift swing of it at his side, as though it were a sword, all four members hit the ground in intense pain, groaning and moaning and with heavy damage to their persona.

Gajeel blinked. He didn't know if he had just witnessed all four members of the elemental four get taken down so quickly. It was unheard of. Even Jose looked like he was ready to ask for a change of trousers.

Grimaios then casually lifted his arm up and aimed at the ceiling and charged magic energy into his fist. "Star Forge." A light shot forth from his hand and blasted a hole straight through the ceiling as debris fell all around Gajeel and Jose. Jose spat out saliva when he saw the asteroid sized hole in his roof. "Consider that a warning of things to come if you touch my guild again." Grimaios then put his staff back on his back. He then gave a very friendly smile to Jose. "I'm glad we could reach this understanding." He then walked away and left the guild.

* * *

**Present Day**

Juvia was trembling by this point with the most shell shocked expression on her face ever. "He…was…a…mon...ster…" she spat out the syllables one by one.

"Oh my, that's quite the accomplishment," Mirajane complimented with a smile.

"So what happened after that? I take it Jose didn't take that lying down," Erza retorted.

"Nope, he sent me to deal with the guild myself," Gajeel jerked a thumb at himself and his smile faded and he trembled for a moment before looking out at the horizon. "Yeah, I think you get the point."

"You got your ass handed to you didn't you?" Natsu teased.

"Shut it, Salamander!"

"By your reaction I take it they were able to beat you together with no effort at all," Erza input.

"Yeah, none. And Jose's expression is clear in my mind when I returned, or rather was escorted back by one of their members."

* * *

**Flashback**

The door to the Phantom Lord guild opened again as a man in a gray cloak, face framed in shadow, with blue eyes piercing through his hood entered into the guild. He was holding Gajeel in the hand of one of his clawed gauntlets. "The guildmaster of Adventurer's Gauntlet believes that this belongs to you," he said in a calm deep voice, "And he asks that you try to keep your members from becoming 'lost' on our home turf."

* * *

**Present Day**

"Man these guys sound really strong," Natsu was all fired up.

"Why are you getting so excited? We're going there to ask for their help, not stir up trouble," Gray reminded him.

"So that's how you learned they were called Adventurer's Gauntlet?" Erza asked.

Gajeel nodded, "Yeah they're something else. After that incident Jose backed off. Adventurer's Gauntlet might be a small guild, but even their 'small fry' are dangerous." He pointed at Wendy. "They have a member on their team just a little younger than you and she's not even their weakest. Girl packs some serious punch. And if you can touch her," Gajeel shuddered, "She's got an older sister who will pound the stuffing out of you." Wendy shrieked at this and began shivering with fear in a whine at the thoughts of a scary older woman beating down on her or anyone else in the guild with a sadistic smile on her face that would make Erza seem Miss Warm and Fuzzy by comparison.

"Stop it Gajeel, you're scaring her!" Carla chastised.

Natsu smiled. "They sound like a really good guild." He was proud of the fact that the guild they were going to be cooperating with was the type that looked out for their members.

"Just how strong are they?" Happy asked.

"This is just my personal opinion, but I'd say that the entire guild would be an even match for that many members of Fairy Tail even if Erza, Natsu, Gray and I were fighting."

"Are you sure you're not exaggerating?" Gray asked, a little off put by the measurement.

"Considering how thoroughly all of them kicked my ass, I daresay we'd make a lot of money selling tickets," Gajeel chuckled, looking back over on the ocean only to see a small island coming up in the distance. "Ah, that'd be it." He looked back to where Mirajane was steering the ship. "Steady as she goes, Mira."

"Aye, aye Gajeel-kun!"

_Adventurer's Gauntlet, _Natsu thought to himself as he saw the island growing larger and larger on the horizon. _They're the guild, that's gonna help us save Lucy._

**To be continued…**

* * *

**(A/N: So yeah this is going to be the main team to rescue Lucy. I figured it was plenty. I would've thrown Elfman, Cana, Freed, Evergreen or Bixlow into the group, but I didn't want to get too crazy and I figured this was enough. Makarov's only not going cause that would be overkill. The next couple of chapters will consist a little of getting Adventurer's Gauntlet's cooperation and after that it's just a lot of fighting and awesomeness. Oh and before anyone asks, Power Perversion Potential regarding the whole slave business here. Lucy's ehm…purity is in jeopardy here. Hope you guys are enjoying yourselves).**


	2. Adventurer's Gauntlet

**(A/N: Okay I noticed that one of my OCs in this fic shares the surname with Fairy Tail's creator. This is completely coincidental. All members of Adventurer's Gauntlet are OCs I created © 2008 for an original story I'm working on and whenever I write fanfiction I like to include my OCs into my work. Also, note that Gajeel dodged who would win between Adventurer's Gauntlet and equal members of Fairy Tail that's because he doesn't know who would win, but knows that it would be such an epic battle that people would flock to it to watch the epicness unfold. Also this is taking place before the Edolas arc, in case anyone was curious).**

Disclaimer: Fairy Tail belongs to Hiro Mashima. I am using it for the policy of Fair Use

* * *

**Adventurer's Gauntlet Guild**

Dragonspire Island: a small island home to the members of Adventurer's Gauntlet. The island was named for the fact that it's shaped like a dragon's head and the old tower that sits in the center of it, which Adventurer's Gauntlet makes their home out of. They did not build it, but they renovated it to create their guild. Does the Island hold some special meaning to the guild? Even today, no one knows.

As Fairy Tail pulled their boat ashore to the south of the island they could see the large mountains in the distance representative of the island's 'horns'. Erza and Gray secured the boat ashore and then Gajeel led everyone towards the Guild Headquarters of Adventurer's Gauntlet.

The tower that served as the building for the Adventurer's Gauntlet headquarters was made of stone and stood at a staggering height and more than ten stories tall, but was rather thin in width by comparison. In fact, one could take the base of the tower and fit it in the dining hall of Fairy Tail's Guild. It would be like if someone took an elongated school building and turned it on its side. At the top of the tower there were battlements arranged at the top making it look like the top of a rook in chess. There were windows periodically placed about the tower and a large wall that extended outward from the base towards the forest. It was impossible to tell, from the group's position, if the wall went into the forest.

Towards the top of the tower, the emblem of Adventurer's gauntlet could be seen placed over a red-shield with a yellow outer layer. The emblem had three staves running across the shield, one going down the center and the other two running at approximately 45 degree angles on either side of the central staff. Each staff had a unique, imperfect shape to the wood used to carve them out. The tattoos on each of the guild's members did its best to imitate these irregular patterns.

Standing in front of the large wooden doors that made up the main entrance to the headquarters, there stood a woman, leaned up against the stone wall. She looked around Erza and Mirajane's age, but chances were that she was probably a few years older. She was tall for a full-grown woman's height, had long legs, a thin waist and a well-shaped bust. Her legs were covered by thin blue spandex leggings and she was wearing straw sandals on her feet. She had a blue face mask that covered her mouth and nose and rather than a shirt she wore bands of gray-black cloth all around her torso. She had a pair of black pauldrons on her shoulders that were attached to a ragged, torn cape that came down towards her shapely ass. Her arms were uncovered with the exception of blue fingerless gloves. Her hair was brown and styled in a long ponytail that extended down towards her mid-back. She had a part of her hair covering her right eye and she had brown eyes. On her ears was a pair of golden hoop earrings. Her dress made her look less like a mage and more like a ninja.

Gajeel recognized her, "Stella."

"Gajeel," the woman pushed up off the wall and stared at him. "I never thought we'd see your sorry ass around these parts again. I heard Phantom Lord had been disbanded. Shouldn't you be bothering Fairy Tail since it was they who crushed your guild into the dirt?"

Erza stepped between Gajeel and Stella, putting her arm in front of Gajeel to prevent him from reacting violently. "We are Fairy Tail," Erza spoke calmly with a cold stare.

Stella blinked for a moment and as her brain took in and recognized the image of the woman in front of her, Stella took a step back and bowed with one arm crossed over her body and the other up in the air. "Ah, my apologies, I should've recognized the famous, Erza Scarlet of Fairy Tail when I saw your approach."

"Don't worry about it," Erza said, staying all business, "Gajeel, now a member of our guild, brought us here because your guild may be able to help us. May we speak with your guildmaster?"

Stella stood upright and nodded. "Yes, follow me."

As the group followed Stella inside, Wendy asked Gajeel. "So who's she?"

"Her name is Stella Beckmiss, she calls her magic: Mesmer. She has the ability to sap willpower and cast hexes and charms to impair one's ability to fight. She can also cast a branch of illusion magic that she can use to throw off perceptions of depth and distance in short bursts. She also can summon a plethora of kunais to strike with. I would know, I still have the scars. She can also enchant her body to punch through magic barriers. She is nimble and a physical fighter."

"How do you know so much?" Gray asked.

"Lots of mind numbing studying. Jose had me read up on these guys before going to attack them. Fat lot of good it did me in the long run."

It didn't take the group long to realize that Stella was leading them down underground where the headquarters were much more spacious. The dormitories of most of the guild members were on the subterranean level. The inside of the guild headquarters was designed as about one could expect, it gave off the theme of a medieval dungeon given that the walls were made out of stone. Bookshelves helped line the place and other than that it seemed furbished like any other guild.

Stella stopped in front of a door that had a few steps leading up to it. The door was marked with the emblem of the guild, encircled in gold with red in between the emblem and the gold circle. Stella knocked on the door.

"Yes?"

"We have members of the guild of Fairy Tail requesting an audience with you, Archmage," Stella said, referring to Grimaios by his nickname, "Are you busy?"

"No, send them in," Grimaios' voice came from inside.

Stella nodded and stepped aside to let the group walk up to the door, which was unlocked, and open it. Grimaios' quarters were quite large. In the center of the room there was a giant tree with blue bark, surrounded by many strange plants. In the back left quadrant there was a potion mixing station and on the back right quadrant it looked like there was an apparatus used for experimenting with magical enchantments, judging from the multi-colored gems and the burnt out lantern on the desk. Grimaios' bed area was in the near left quadrant and to the right was his study, where he was currently sitting. Grimaios shut the book he had been reading and waved them over. He recognized both Juvia and Gajeel, but said nothing, but a faint smile on his face, indicated that he could tell they were a part of Fairy Tail now and that he thought it was a good thing. News of Phantom Lord's disbandment reached even the remote island and Grimaios was pleased to know that what he believed were its more prominent members were doing well.

There weren't enough guest chairs so while Wendy, Gray and Mirajane sat down, Natsu plopped himself down onto the floor while Gajeel and Erza remained standing. Juvia also sat on the floor, but she sidled up along the chair Gray was sitting in and leaned against it since the cushion sat up so high that the armrest was above her head. Across from them was a couch and a chair, the latter of which Grimaios was currently occupying. No one sat on the couch so they could all face the young guildmaster.

"So, how can I, or my guild, help you?" Grimaios asked, leaning forward and putting his elbows on his knees, interlocking his fingers.

Gajeel was quick to explain. "One of our own was tricked into signing a blood contract that was enchanted to seem like a different blood contract entirely. Now she's a slave to a man known as Mavon Gant."

Erza picked up from there. "We would ask the council for help, but our guildmaster believed we'd have a better chance of voiding the contract with the use of a mage specializing in anti-curse magic. Gajeel believed you had such a mage and…here we are."

Grimaios 'mmmhmmed' in acknowledgment. "I am familiar with the workings of blood contracts, but I daresay it is strange that you would come to us for help. I would've thought Blue Pegasus would be a more reasonable option. They're more well-known and have a plethora of mages to deal with this sort of thing."

Erza began shaking slightly and her head tilted forward. Gajeel was quick to give a quick explanation: "Personal reasons."

"Quite," Grimaios said in response, slowly blinking. He stood up and went to pluck a book off the shelf. Mirajane recognized it immediately. It was a record book to keep track of guild operations. "You were right to come here then," He said opening the book from the last page and flipping backwards towards the most recent entries. "Sakina's magic can definitely help you in this instance."

"Sakina?" Natsu perked up.

"Sakina Mashima, sometimes called Dark Sorceress Sakina or the Gorgon of Adventurer's Gauntlet. She's one of our more powerful mages. Our guild may not be big, but its members earn quite the reputation in some parts."

"If you were a larger guild, maybe you'd be more easily recognized," Mirajane chimed in.

"More than likely, but it's hard accepting new members on our budget. And those that come to us always seem to have trouble fitting in. We used to be a much larger group," Grimaios sighed, "But that was a long time ago and I'm getting off topic." He put the book back on the shelf and turned to face the group. "Sakina's magic is known as The Shaperate. Sakina has the unique power to shape her magic and the area around her."

"Is that like my Ice-Make, but to a different extent?" Gray asked.

"Sort of," Grimaios responded, "Ice-Make and its elemental variants focus on shaping and summoning different constructs of the element it focuses on, but if you were to use such magic on Sakina," Grimaios said, holding up his right index finger, "She could shape the magic being used against her, how she sees fit."

"Like how?" Wendy asked.

"She turned some of my attacks from iron into paper. She could probably even turn Salamander's flames here into harmless water. No offense, Juvia."

"Juvia is not offended," Juvia responded.

"Sakina's abilities don't stop there. If she 'understands' a magic as she calls it, she can shape her magical energy blasts to penetrate right through enemy defenses. She can also make her energy attacks do metaphysical damage, essentially draining a target's magic rather than their vitality. Lastly, she can turn anything non-magical into something else, within limits. The greatest feat I've seen her accomplish is morphing a small rabbit into a gigantic mutant cunnicular giant." The others were a little taken aback by Grimaios' statement. "Her magic can't generally affect other mages directly, though there was one time I let my guard down and she wound up turning me into a newt."

"A newt?" Everyone asked in unison considering Grimaios looked perfectly unharmed.

Grimaios looked back and forth several times before saying, "I got better."

"So she can shape magic into other magic? How does that help us exactly?" Erza asked only to ponder the thought for a little bit and come to a conclusion. "Wait!"

"I see the gears in your head turning, Titania-san," Grimaios said, calling Erza by her nickname, "Yes, Sakina could shape the blood contract you so speak of to have different terms and agreements. In doing so, she can help free your friend."

"That's great!" Natsu said leaping to his feet.

"However, there are two problems," Grimaios said holding up the corresponding number of fingers.

"What sort of problems?" Erza wanted to know.

"For starters, Sakina is currently out on her mission, though that won't be too much of an issue for you, I can assure you. Second, Sakina…she's not the most social of types. You'll understand better when you meet her."

"I know this is important to us, but it surprises me that you're willing to take her off a mission," Mirajane spoke up.

"I'll be sending one of my guild members with you to replace her. She and Sakina are both S-class so it won't be too big a deal. On top of that, just because Sakina will be joining you, assuming you can gain her cooperation, it doesn't make things any easier. I know of Gant. He's not going to be easily fooled if Sakina just knocks on the front door. He is very wary of guests."

"We'll do whatever it takes!" Natsu glared. Grimaios could only smirk at the young man's determination.

"Incidentally, just how are we supposed to find Sakina?" Gray wanted to know.

Grimaios walked past the members of Fairy Tail and waved them over to the back right quadrant of his quarters. Near the back wall there was a crystal ball. "This crystal ball of mine is enchanted with clairvoyance. I can lock in on Sakina's position and you should be able to find her no problem. That's the great advantage of living out on an island, all of the coasts in Fiore and surrounding regions like Minstrel and Seven are reachable with ease. First though, let me go get Narzia so she can replace Sakina on her mission. I also need to speak with another member so she can accompany you once you have gained Sakina's cooperation."

"We have seven mages here, plus Sakina that's eight. Don't you think nine is overkill?" Erza questioned. While a big party could ensure the success of a mission, sometimes too many cooks spoiled the broth in her opinion.

"Gant has fifteen mages under his disposal, some of which might not be below S-class, not to mention he himself is a great sorcerer on his own. Trust me when I say I wouldn't be sending someone to assist you if I didn't think it would matter."

"Why? Who are you sending?" Gajeel asked.

"Luciella," Grimaios said as he looked over his shoulder.

Gajeel turned white.

"I'll be back shortly," Grimaios said and went to go to meet with Luciella and Narzia.

"Gajeel, is something the matter?" Erza asked.

"Gajeel-kun," Wendy called his name yanking on his arm.

Gajeel came out of it and chuckled as he palmed his face. "Gotta remember these guys are on our side."

"Bad memories?" Gray asked.

"You can say that," Gajeel responded. "Luciella, full name Luciella Mina Vamplasa, is second most powerful mage in Adventurer's Gauntlet."

Everyone around him had shocked faces.

"Yeah if Grimaios is sending her along for whatever reason, this is going to be no picnic. Good god that woman is scary."

"She can't be more terrifying than Erza!" Natsu exclaimed only to be hit on the head by the redhead.

"Well I can't say for sure, but Luciella is formidable and powerful enough that she earned the nickname the Vampire of Adventurer's Gauntlet."

* * *

**Gant's Mansion**

Lucy was on duty to help clean the kitchen that day. As she mopped the floor and helped one of the other maids work on cleaning the dishes, she heard strange noises coming from above as well as thumping. She could've sworn she should know what the sound was, but couldn't be sure.

"Hey, Hatori-san," Lucy said to the maid with short, blue hair and eyes working on the dishes.

"Lucy, Hatori is just fine. We are maids. There is no need for honorifics for people like us."

"Wh-whatever, what's going on up there?" Lucy indicated with the mop handle.

Hatori looked up and the sounds of moaning and grunting and pounding could be heard on the floor above. "Oh, is it Gabrielle's day again already? I could've sworn mine was just yesterday."

"Day? What do you mean?" Lucy asked.

"Gant-sama has a calendar that he periodically keeps for all of us. Those whose 'day' it is spend all day attending to the master's personal needs."

"What like bringing him food?"

"I said 'personal' needs."

"Eh?" Lucy blinked for a moment before Hatori whispered in her ear. The blonde mage's face turned redder and redder and redder with each passing second until she cried out loudly. "EHHHHHHH?"

* * *

**Adventurer's Gauntlet, Basement**

"V-v-v-v-v-v—"

"VAMPIRE!" Natsu and Wendy exclaimed over Happy's terrified stuttering.

"It's not what you think," Gajeel said bluntly, quick to put an end to his comrade's over-hyperactivity. "She's not a real vampire, as far as anyone knows, but besides her straight up magic, known as Crimson Nightmare, she has sharp fangs and she sometimes bites mages and either drains their magic energy or puts a portion of her magic into that person's body, almost always as a magic transfusion, or so I've heard."

"What do you mean by magic transfusion?" Erza wanted to know.

"While connected to her target, via her fangs, usually at the neck," Gajeel explained, index finger in the air, "Luciella can suck out magical energy to restore her own and make her stronger, or she can put in some of her own magical energy into the person she's biting, which, depending on the person can sometimes have adverse side effects, though no record of such tremendous ones other than usually what Salamander experiences from eating any source other than fire has been recorded."

"Doesn't she get sick from draining other types of magic?" Natsu asked.

"Not from what I've heard and definitely not from what I experienced," Gajeel said scratching his neck. "And by god do those fangs hurt. I'm not even sure those are her real fangs either. I think there some sort of magical construct she enchanted and attached to her canines. Those things were _way_ too sharp."

"What about her magic? You called it Crimson Nightmare," Gray put in.

"Luciella's attacks take a crimson color to them, but the extent of the damage she can create with them is startling. I only know of two variants that she used against me: a whip and discs of energy. Adventurer's Gauntlet actually had to stitch me back up before they returned me to Phantom Lord. I lost a few limbs fighting them."

Juvia looked freaked out. "Jose-sama was thinking of taking on these monsters?"

"Sounds like the perfect person to help us rescue Lucy," Natsu grinned, arms folded.

Gajeel nodded. "However, I don't know what Grimaios' thought process is other than giving us some more firepower. For that matter he could send another one of his S-class mages rather than his number two. I'm guessing Luciella has some special ability that he thinks will prove useful to us."

"Or maybe he thinks we're a bunch of kids that can't take care of ourselves," Gray brooded.

"Doubtful," Gajeel shook his head. "Grimaios is a rather intelligent individual. Some have called him a super-brain before, but the name doesn't stick as well as Archmage since his intelligence is just a supporting trait of his magical prowess."

"Why, what can Grimaios do?" Wendy wanted to know.

"His magic is called Mastercraft. From what I could gather from my brief encounter, the gemmed staff he carries is an amplifier to his power. Grimaios has the ability to cast powerful magic utilizing fire, water, wind, ice, earthly, electric, holy and dark energies. And sometimes he does it so effortlessly too. That guy is not to be messed with, pure and simple."

"I wonder how Gildarts would measure up to him," Natsu scratched his head.

"From the sound of it, this guy alone could pose a problem for the master," Gray surmised.

"No way! Master Makarov is one of the Ten Saint Wizards, there's no way this guy is that powerful without being one of them!" Natsu argued.

"They're a small guild remember, maybe his talent just isn't recognized."

"Or maybe Gajeel got his but handed to him so badly that he's overestimating the guy's abilities."

"Are you saying you could take someone who took out former enemies of ours in seconds? He's not a guildmaster if he could lose to a snot nosed punk like you."

"Who are you calling a snot-nosed punk, you snot-nosed punk?"

"Break it up!" Erza declared loudly, causing Natsu and Gray to rigidly stand still and face her. "Honestly, arguing over something so STUPID isn't helping anything and it's sure not going to help us save Lucy."

"Gray-sama if it's any consolation, Juvia thinks you're right."

"Uh huh, thanks."

"Enough!" Erza roared.

"Eep!" Juvia cowered, clutching Gray's arm tightly in fright.

_Why is she clinging to me? _Gray rolled his eyes.

Footsteps from above alerted the group to Grimaios coming down the steps with a short woman with blonde hair and a blue, silk, shoulder strapless dress, with blue roses arranged at the bust line, one blue rose in her hair, and carrying a blue violin, accompanying him. Her eyes were blank.

_She's blind, _Erza observed.

"Everyone this is Narzia Tidales. Narzia I present to you members of Fairy Tail."

"Ah, a pleasure to meet you all," Narzia bowed politely. She had a rather high pitched voice for a woman around Grimaios' age, but it was calm and soothing and had a maternal tone to it.

"You can't see us, can you?" Mirajane asked sympathetically.

Narzia shook her head, "No, but I can sense your magical energies so I know that there are seven of you, nine if you count your small little companions."

"Wha—you can tell what size we all are?" Wendy was impressed.

Narzia nodded. "Yes, I'm really good at sensing magical wavelengths and the proportions of them to their sources."

"So what's your magic then, sonic amplification or something?" Natsu asked.

"Actually it's water," Gajeel remarked. Everyone had shocked faces again.

"Yes, you see," Narzia held up her violin, "I can control the vibrations between the molecules in the air and condense it into water. My violin helps me concentrate."

"And you're an S-class mage with that ability? Wow," Wendy was impressed.

"Please, it's really not that impressive, honest," Narzia flapped her hand up and down. Her modesty was outstanding

"At any rate, you all can get acquainted with each other later. Let's see where Sakina is and you should be able to navigate there overseas with ease."

* * *

**Gant's Mansion**

Lucy worried and worried and worried for the rest of the day about when her 'day' might come up. After talking to two of the other maids, she was able to find a copy of the calendar Gant used for the current month. She spotted her name and counted backwards from today's date. "EHHHH? It's tomorrow?"

* * *

By the time Fairy Tail and Narzia docked ashore at the town Grimaios had tracked Sakina to, night had fallen. The group was wary of Sakina's general vicinity and locating her would be much easier than normal thanks to Narzia's talent.

"Even if we didn't have her with us, Sakina sticks out like a sore thumb," Gajeel pointed out.

"What do you mean?" Mirajane asked.

"You'll know when you see her," Gajeel responded.

The group followed Narzia, who, despite being blind didn't seem to have any trouble avoiding walls or walking at a brisk pace. Narzia's explanation was that it was part in thanks to her ability. Molecular vibrations, which she could sense, were more prominent in air and through liquid than in solid matter if she was coming up on a wall or solid surface she could sense it.

"I see, so you're not really blind, you can sense your surroundings sort of like a bat's sonic radar," Carla input.

"That's one way of putting it I suppose," Narzia stated.

It took the group only fifteen minutes of wandering around to finally locate Sakina. At first the darkness of night shrouded her mostly from view, but as she stepped into the light of a street lamp, the group could see what Gajeel meant.

Sakina's skin was lizard green. She had glowing red eyes and was wearing black, silk gloves going up just a little past her elbow. She was wearing black cloth wrappings on her legs, with no shoes and appeared to be levitating off the ground slightly. Sakina wore a violet outfit that made her look like a belly dancer. However, her lack of covered skin was probably the second thing one would notice. The first thing one would notice about Sakina, apart from her green skin, would probably be her hair. It was black with a hint of orange, but the strange part was that it seemed to be alive as it looked to be moving back and forth above her head, cementing her nickname in the eyes of the members of Fairy Tail as the Gorgon of Adventurer's Gauntlet.

"Don't make eye contact!" Natsu recoiled.

"Idiot, she's not going to turn you to stone," Gajeel chuckled.

Sakina, thankfully, was secure in her appearance, and therefore did not take Natsu's statement the wrong way, indicating that he may believe she was hideous and it was debated as to whether or not she was aesthetically pleasing to the eye given her body's slim shape and decent tone, like that of an exotic dancer.

Sakina stopped levitating when she saw Narzia and her eyes ceased glowing, but were still red. She dropped to her feet and turned around to walk away as her hair dropped down and cascaded down her back in the many split ends they had been sticking up with. "Sakina, please wait," Narzia called out to her.

The green-skinned mage stopped walking and turned her head to face the blind mage. A low growling hiss of breath could be heard from this general direction.

"My skin is crawling," Gray swallowed.

"She scares me," Wendy whined.

Happy was also trembling a little.

"It's probably part of her repertoire," Mirajane said with a serious face. "Intimidation is a good technique to have in battle."

"Wait, you mean she thought we were enemies?" Erza asked.

Natsu just put on a serious face as he focused on Sakina's conversation with Narzia. Now he understood what Grimaios meant about Sakina not being the social type. He could almost sense how on edge she was and practically feel her desire to leave the scene posthaste. In was really sad and depressing in a way considering the impression Natsu got that Adventurer's Gauntlet was a close knit group.

"Sakina, I know this looks really irregular to you, but these people are from Fairy Tail and they need your help. I was asked to switch with you so that the job can be completed."

Another hiss came from Sakina's general direction.

"She doesn't talk much, does she?" Gray questioned. Erza slapped him upside the head for being rude. "Ow."

Juvia, unfortunately took Gray's observance the wrong way. _Another love rival?_

"The guildmaster has already approved of this, but he's left the decision entirely up to you, but you don't stand to lose anything by not going. I'll only take ten percent to compensate." Narzia was referring to the reward for the mission's completion.

Another low hissing growl came from Sakina and she continued to walk away. Narzia looked sorrowful. "I guess she wo—"

Before Narzia could finish stating her failure, Natsu rushed forward and got down on his hands and knees to beg for Sakina's assistance. "Please don't go!" he shouted.

Sakina looked over her shoulder again at the fire mage.

"Please help! Our friend is really, deeply in trouble right now! She signed a blood contract that she thought was for a job, but it was enchanted and it turned her into a slave at someone else's beck and call! Please help us! If you won't help us of your own accord, we'll even consider it official guild business if that's what it takes."

Gray and Erza were taken aback by Natsu's sudden abrupt drop to all fours and quickness to resort to pleading. Mirajane and Happy both understood though that Natsu was not about to resign Lucy to her fate. He would do everything he could to make sure she got the help she needed. Natsu knew that violence was not the answer. The group needed Sakina's help. True, they could always turn to Blue Pegasus, but Natsu wasn't about to quit on the option standing only a few feet away after they had come this far.

"Please, we were told you're not the most social person in the world, but we're begging you, please help us help Lucy," Natsu pleaded.

And yet, despite his heartfelt, desperate attempts, Sakina turned her head away and continued to head into the darkness. Natsu was left speechless.

Narzia was disappointed. "If Sakina won't help there's nothing we, as a guild, can do to help."

Erza looked like she was about to faint. "Here I come, Ichiya," she said depressingly as tears streamed down her face in a comedic fashion.

"No! I won't give up!" Natsu shouted as he sprung to his feet.

"Natsu, relax," Gray said to him, "There's nothing we can do. It'd probably just be easier to go to Blue Pegasus."

"No it isn't," Natsu said, speaking informatively. "For starters, Blue Pegasus is several days' journey away from here. Second, we don't even know if there's someone there who can help us as readily as we know that Sakina's magic is capable of doing exactly what we need to disenchant the contract and free Lucy. Thirdly…" Natsu took a long pause. "Okay so I can't think of a third thing, but the point is that I think I can convince Sakina in a reasonable amount of time."

"Oh yeah, how quickly?" Gajeel said.

"By daybreak…no, sooner than that. I'll convince Sakina to help us, by midnight."

**To be continued…**

* * *

**(A/N: Will Natsu be able to convince Sakina to join the group before the strike of midnight [good god why is it always midnight?]? Will Lucy be rescued in time to save her from having to spend quality time with her slave master? You'll just have to find out in the next chapter).**


	3. Sakina Mashima: Shaperate Mage

**(A/N: Just so you guys know, if this fanfic is enjoyed by enough of you guys I may write another fic that has is an AU of canon, just with Adventurer's Gauntlet inserted into the series past this point in time of the fic, essentially I'd have them around during the seven year time skip doing stuff and possibly replacing one of the teams in the Grand Magic Games arc, more than likely Quatro Cerberus since they're slowly turning into the butt monkeys of the arc, but we'll see what happens, no promises about that and don't let me know your thoughts until this short story is finished).**

Disclaimer: Fairy Tail belongs to Hiro Mashima

* * *

**Aboard Fairy Tail's Nice Boat**

With Natsu off trying to convince Sakina to help out, Gray and the others settled down back on the boat to try and figure out what to do if Natsu couldn't convince them and how to pass the time by since it was so late in the evening that a lot of places were closed. Gray was currently lying down in his cabin looking up at the original request form asking for the subdual of Trixie Mescearl. He figured it couldn't hurt to bring it along having found a copy of it rustling around the streets in the last few days. He knew the whole thing was a scam, but he wondered just how much of the scam was fictional. He figured it couldn't hurt to ask about it. It would make good conversation if it stuck.

He went out on deck to talk to the others who were all scattered about the boat. "Hey do you guys know if the target mentioned in the scam mission is real or not?"

"What does it matter if she is or not?" Gajeel spat over the side of the boat.

"Just making conversation," Gray responded sharply, "You don't have to be sour about it." He then scratched his head. "I was also thinking after this is over, if she is real, maybe we could see why this guy wants her beaten and brought back. He's a lying scumbag after all so maybe she's not so bad."

"What's her name?" Erza asked.

"Trixie Mesceral," Gray responded.

"Never heard of her," Erza responded.

"It was a D-rank scam. Even if that is the name of a real mage I doubt this Mavon Gant would've used the name of someone incredibly well known and powerful," Carla rationalized

"Nevertheless, I know that name," Narzia spoke up.

"You have?" Gray asked, genuinely surprised.

Narzia nodded with a smile, "Yes, she's one of our guild members. Trixie is very adept at wind magic. She isn't one of our strongest though. And you mentioned Mavon Gant too, that name also rings a bell."

"You know him?"

"Yes, I'm surprised Grimaios didn't say anything. We've dealt with Mavon Gant…or rather his father, Yevon Gant, before. Trixie was the one who encountered him. We were hired by another guild to subdue him and turn him over to the authorities."

"Why what was he doing?" Mirajane asked.

"He was also creating slaves, but he was a lot more overt about it, and his ring was much smaller, only operating in one town and it was incredibly private. Perhaps this is Mavon's act of revenge, hoping to catch our attention."

"But wait, if Trixie brought him down, why is this flyer a D-class assignment? Grimaios built up Mavon to be this all-powerful, incredibly dangerous mage," Erza questioned.

"Mavon was creating the blood contracts for his father in the first place. His father was a very weak mage. It's likely the authorities, and our client, didn't know who was really pulling the strings. It seems that mistake has come back to bite us."

"But wait, this was a scam request, surely one of your members should've at least seen the flyer," Mirajane stated.

"We saw Trixie's name, but Jeremy Scholar, one of our members, is very good at fraud identification of both the magical and non-magical variety. Once he had ruled that this was a scam request we just simply wrote it off as a hoax. We didn't think anything of it. If Jeremy felt it was necessary he would've alerted the council."

"Man, I hate it when poor communication causes situations like this to get completely out of hand," Gray grumbled. "What a pain in the ass."

"Still, armed with this knowledge, I do believe we possess the ability to convince Sakina to join us now."

"How so?" Erza inquired.

"Sakina might be anti-social, but she's still one of us. If she knew one of the guild had been threatened she'd join us for the simple reason of seeing Mavon Gant suffer. I heard you call her intimidating before and while Sakina does carry with her a formidable presence, her presence is all the more terrifying, like anyone else's in the world, when she is angry."

* * *

Meanwhile, Natsu was out in the dark following Sakina throughout the town. Although the word 'stalking' might have been more appropriate. He was tailing her and following her and trying to see if she might go somewhere away from civilization. Natsu had a feeling that Sakina was not good in large crowds. Erza was like that at first, but in a different way, as were several members of the guild from what he knew. He could read Sakina's body language and he figured that his large group had made her very uncomfortable so for now he wanted to stealthily follow her and give her the impression that she was alone until he could come out of the shadows and talk to her one on one.

It only took thirty minutes from the start of his stalking before he got his wish. Out from civilization Sakina was now standing in front of a cornfield and Natsu finally came out from hiding, mostly since there was no place to hide.

"I was wondering when you'd come out of the shadows." Sakina's voice had an echoing, seductive pitch to it that created a furthered the mysticism about her. Despite the pitch though it was less inviting and more like downright scary.

_She knew I was following her! _Natsu silently freaked out. _And more than that she spoke!_

"The shadows are my friends, they are calming and soothing," Sakina walked over to a corn stalk and broke the stalk at the tip. "What do you want? I thought I made my answer clear?" Sakina asked, glancing over her shoulder.

"I won't allow you to ignore our request. If you're guild operates like I think you should be willing to help, so why won't you?"

"Your guild's problems are not my problems. My comrades are my concern."

"That's a wrong, rigid way of thinking," Natsu chastised.

Sakina turned around to face Natsu, "Who is to say what is wrong and what is right? Philosophies are a matter of opinion. They are no more wrong from each other than a person is evil just from the color of their skin."

"Don't try to confuse me!" Natsu exclaimed, his brain unable to process Sakina's whimsically philosophical nature.

"Do you really think your persistence will persuade me to change my mind?"

"I won't stop until you do."

"You are wasting your time," Sakina said and turned around to disappear into the corn field.

Natsu was crushed. Images of Lucy's happy, smiling face and fond memories of her swarmed about his head as he tensed up and tried not to lash out since that would ruin any chance he had if he lost his temper. Once again, he dropped to his hands and knees.

"Please! I'm begging you! Don't walk away! We really need your help! Lucy means everything not just to me, but to everyone in the guild! You can't ignore us! We wouldn't ignore you if the situation was reversed! Why can't you understand?" He continued to hear retreating footsteps. "Would you ignore a person in peril if it was one of your own?"

Sakina froze. Natsu's last statement sunk into her. However, it was the way he said it that caused it to sink in.

* * *

**Flashback**

A pale skinned teenager girl with vibrant, red-orange hair, wearing a crystal blue, silk outfit like that of an exotic dancer sat slumped on her knees and watched as everything around her went up in flames. She was injured and bruised on her body and her hands were covered in blood. She cried out in agony as tears streamed down her face. Nearby were two similar looking individuals, one older, one younger. The younger one was her little sister and the older one was her mother.

Her entire town was destroyed, gone before she could even react. The enemy had come in so swiftly and she had been knocked out so soon. A gifted mage, though she was, she barely had a chance to fight back. She was only able to kill one attacker who lingered and she made sure to give him the bloody end he had deserved, but she had lost everything. Her home was burning to ashes, her town was completely destroyed, and her family was completely gone.

As she continued to wail a presence loomed over her. She looked up and recognized the woman that loomed over her. She wore a soft leather, dusty yellow form-fitting dress that was designed in such a way that it was attached to a frilled, corn yellow long skirt that reached down towards the woman's ankles and brushed against the ground, hiding her yellow, leather stilettos quite nicely. It almost looked like it was a girdle or a stretched out vest attached to a more traditional ballroom dress. Along either side of her waist two short ribbons came down along her wide, though hard to tell under the dress, well-toned thighs. The gown had no shoulder straps and came up to the woman's clavicle. The zipper in the front was undone to expose quite a bit of cleavage. She was wearing dark yellow, soft leather detached sleeves on her arms. She had long black hair with her bangs slightly brushing across the top of her eyes and yellow eyes, while wearing red eye-shadow. She had ruby red lips and looked to be in her mid-forties. She was also wearing a cotton neck warmer. However, where the garment met her chin it split like a flower with pointed petals and extended with two little leaflets of cloth in either direction. The girl stopped crying as she stared at the person standing over her.

"Ve are sorry ve did not make it in time. Ve know zat ze pain you are veeling runs deep. Ve can take zat pain away," The woman offered the girl her hand.

"Will it all go away?" The girl asked.

"You are vone of us, Zakina. Ve take care of our own."

* * *

**Present Day**

A tear streamed down Sakina's face as she clenched her teeth together and did her best not to break down, remembering that day, the day she lost everything. The pain was taken away and Sakina had the form she had now because of it. She did not regret it. Though it still hurt to recall, Sakina did not have to feel the psychologically deep gash carved in her heart. Instead it was more of a slight twinge. She wiped her eye and turned around to see Natsu on all fours, still pleading for her help. She strode over to him and caressed his face. Natsu looked up. Sakina was smiling and as she smiled she didn't seem threatening at all. She seemed rather friendly, just like any other person.

"I will help you," Sakina told him.

Natsu became elated. He rose to his feet and grinned widely, sniffing as he wiped his finger under his nose. "Thanks."

"No one should go through the pain of losing those close to them. You have me convinced."

Natsu just smiled widely.

"Natsu!" Wendy's voice rang through the air.

"Guys!" Natsu turned around to look towards the others.

"Sakina," Narzia called to her.

"It's all right, Narzia, this is where we switch places. Natsu has convinced me to join you all," Sakina stated.

"Well that saves us some time and here we were all about to convince you through other means," Gray said, stretching.

"I've been meaning to ask since I first laid eyes upon you," Sakina said, raising an eyebrow as she looked at Gray, "but…why are you wearing only boxer shorts?"

_She really is a love rival! _Juvia shouted in her head.

"He does that. It's normal for us," Natsu stated.

"Um…okay."

"Good, you are all assembled," A heavily accented, mature, female voice called out as a woman with long black hair, yellow eyes with red eye shadow, garbed in what appeared to be a ballroom dress fused with a girdle along with two detached sleeves and a neck warmer, all yellow in color.

"Luciella-sama," Sakina recognized her.

"That's Luciella?" Mirajane tilted her head.

"She doesn't look scary at all," Wendy said happily.

"Luciella-sama, why are you here? I had no idea you were coming," Sakina stated.

"Grimaios asked me to accompany you. He believes my zkills vill be important to ze mission and I agree."

"Did you follow us all the way here?" Erza queried.

"Most of my travel vas done via long distance teleportation. Ze rest I zimply used levitation to vind you."

"Why didn't you just come with them at the start?" Sakina asked. "Had I known you were coming—"

Luciella held up a hand. "Grimaios believes you need to learn to be a little more zocial zo he asked me to intervene only if abzolutely necessary. Besides, my powers are amplified under ze glow of ze moon."

_She really is a vampire! _Happy and Wendy exclaimed, jaws wide open.

Sakina lifted her hand skyward and transformed one of the corn stalks into a scroll, which she handed over to Narzia. "This is the mission you need to complete in my place. It's in Brail."

"Thank you," Narzia said, "and thank you for finally agreeing to this."

"Why are you thanking me? They are the ones who are in need of my assistance."

"I am thanking you because you proved me right. Despite your metamorphosis, you still have a good heart," Narzia then sprouted a pair of wings made of water and flew off to the other side of the corn fields.

"So what now?" Natsu asked.

"Now, why don't you explain to me the details of what's going on?" Sakina requested. "Knowledge is power and the sooner I can get a good grasp on the situation, the sooner we can go save your friend."

"No problem," Natsu smirked.

* * *

**Gant's Mansion**

Lucy was sitting in her bedroom, unable to sleep. The thought that her day was tomorrow and Natsu hadn't shown up yet was problematic. Her heart kept thumping in her chest as she thought of Natsu. If he didn't show up soon that fat slovenly owner of hers would touch her in places she didn't want to be touched, not by him anyway. Memories of Natsu, fond memories of all the times he had helped her, all the times he had been there for her, flooded her mind. She desperately wanted him to show up soon. She wasn't ready yet, but she had begun to think that she wanted Natsu to be her first.

Well, she also wasn't sure if Natsu was ready either. Not to mention they weren't going steady or anything like that. How could she just come out of the blue and confess these strong feelings she had for him. Her heart beat faster and faster in her chest. Gingerly and hesitantly, Lucy began slipping off her uniform while lying down on her bed. She undid it only so that her breasts were exposed and she could reach her most sensitive spot without digging underneath her clothes.

_Natsu. _Lucy thought of him and how much she admired him and then…she began to touch herself. She slowly caressed her erogenous zones as her face turned hot and her breathing quickened. _Natsu…Natsu…_ Her mouth opened as her desperation for him to be near increased. Whenever Natsu showed up he always made things better. Whenever Natsu showed up, Lucy always felt safe. "Natsu!" Lucy cried out and arched her back as she climaxed and her vaginal fluid began to seep onto her quilt. Her hands then dropped to her side as she panted for breath. She closed her eyes halfway and looked apprehensively out at the starry night sky. _Natsu…where are you?_

* * *

At Sakina's request, the group had taken her to the open space where Loke had been petrified. Luciella was able to get them all their in mere moments with her long distance teleportation technique. And despite teleporting herself and eight other mages she didn't seem the least bit winded or exhausted; a testament of her skills of being an elite rank mage.

"Are you going to free Loke?" Natsu asked, hopeful.

"I can try," Sakina said, approaching the statue. She then levitated off the ground as her eyes glowed red and her hair stood up and moved. She then stretched out her hair towards the statue and began feeling it as though she were an insect using its feelers.

"What's she doing?" Erza asked Luciella.

"Zis zis one of ze ways Zakina…understands an individual's magic as ze calls zit. Even if ze is not able to free your friend ze vill be able to more easily combat Mavon Gant's magic."

Sakina finally returned to standing on the ground and her hair went back to normal. "As I suspected, I cannot undo the petrification done to your friend here as is. However, if I change the context of the blood contract, I should be able to undo the effects."

"What will happen to Loke when that happens?" Natsu asked.

"As a celestial spirit, he should return to where he belongs," Sakina answered. "But now is not the time to dawdle on such details. We have a mission to complete." Sakina dug around in the dirt.

"Now what are you doing?" Erza asked.

"There are traces of the transportation magic used here. If we're going to find your friend, tonight, I can use these traces to help Luciella follow the same transportation path."

"That's incredible. Is that part of your power of The Shaperate?" Carla inquired.

"Well somewhat, what I'm doing now is just grinding up iotas of magical energy left over from the spell. This," Sakina said letting go of all the dirt she had been scrounging up in her hand and thrusting her arm towards Luciella. A trail of sparkling yellow energy flew towards the vampire, "is the power of The Shaperate."

Luciella blinked for a moment as the glittery yellow sparkles hit her in the face, but as she looked up into the sky she could see a trail like the arch of an all yellow rainbow. "I can see the path so clearly."

"That's incredible," Mirajane marveled.

"Everyone, get ready," Luciella said as she charged magical energy. "We're going to zave your friend." A bright flash of crimson light enveloped the members of Fairy Tail, Sakina, and Luciella and they vanished into the night.

* * *

**Gant's Mansion**

Inside her room, Lucy still lay awake, unable to fall asleep. Tomorrow she would more than likely be forced to lose her virginity. She sat flat on her back and then heard the bass tone of the grandfather clock from out in the hallway. She heard it chime twelve times. "Midnight," she mumbled.

A knock came to her door only a few moments later. Lucy answered it to see the sight of a maid with short scarlet hair in a bowl cut. "Gant-sama has asked that you report his bedroom, Lucy. It's your turn now."

Lucy gasped. When she knew today was her day she didn't know that meant the entire day. Midnight had only just come. She thought she would've at least been able to sleep till daybreak. She had to think of something. She had to come up with an excuse to not go to Gant's bedroom.

Lucy doubled over "Oh, actually could you have him postpone my arrival, my stomach hurts."

The maid bowed. "Gant-sama can use his magic to alleviate any sort of minor aches and pains. It's how we are all able to function so healthily. There's no need to worry, even if it is your first time."

_She has no idea, _Lucy said, knowing how much of a 'first time' this would be.

"Do you know where the master bedroom is or shall I escort you?" the maid asked her.

"I-I can go by myself," Lucy insisted. She instantly made a mad dash towards the front door.

"Lucy, the bedroom is the other way." Lucy ignored her. "Oh dear." The maid put her hand to her cheek. "Master will not like this."

Lucy began running towards the front door, but no sooner had she gotten to the staircase did she unwillingly drop to her knees. _My body…it hurts…I can hardly breathe. _

"Now, now, why are you running away towards the front door? That isn't what I asked you to do." Gant's disgusting voice reverberated in Lucy's head as he came up behind her and grabbed underneath her chin. "You're a naughty girl to try and run away. You need to be punished." Gant picked Lucy up in his arms. She tried to struggle, but her body wouldn't move.

_All my strength…_

Gant took her into the double doors behind them, which was the master bedroom. It was extravagant with the cream colored walls, dimly lit lamps and regal bed with violet-red sheets. The bedroom was designed in a way so majestic that it was in stark contrast to its pig of an owner.

"It's all right, Lucy. The first time is always the hardest. You'll come to love it, eventually." Gant then threw Lucy onto the bed where she landed face down. She propped herself up onto her hands and knees as Gant began to undo his pants. "Oh, so you like it from behind. How lovely."

"No! Don't come near me!" Lucy shouted as she sat up on her knees and backed away towards the other side of the room. Suddenly though she found that her body was moving towards Gant and not away from him like she wanted it to. "N-no…wh-what is this? I-I can't control my body."

"Didn't I tell you when you first signed the contract that I own you? I can control you as I see fit. First your body, then your mind and eventually your soul, just like all of the others."

"No! No!" Lucy continued to struggle, using every ounce of willpower she had to avoid going anywhere near Gant. Ultimately though, the blood contract won out and Lucy went darting over to Gant as he grabbed hold of her and began feeling her up. He started by squeezing her left breast and licking her right cheek, while snaking around towards her sensitive spot.

"N-no…stop. I don't want this. Stop it," Lucy squirmed.

"Now, now, Lucy, there's no reason to struggle, you'll come to like it eventually."

"I don't want to like it. I want Natsu, where's Natsu? I WANT NATSU!"

Gant let go of her and backhand slapped her to the ground. "The mentioning of other men is forbidden in this house, especially my bedroom."

Lucy looked up from the ground, hand on her cheek, with ferocious eyes.

"It's amazing you can still look at me with those eyes," Gant said with his head tilted. "I thought by this point you would be unable to have this much fire in you."

"I am a Fairy Tail mage," Lucy said, rising to her feet, "just who the hell do you think I am?" she shouted. Her triumphant declaration was short lived when she was forced to her feet.

"If I cannot make you give in to your carnal desires. I shall take you by force," Gant glared. Lucy then found herself completely unable to control her body as she got herself back onto the bed and spread her legs. "That's a good girl."

_I can't move at all. I can't even fight it. _Gant crawled on top of her and grabbed her breast again before pulling down her panties. _No. _Lucy was forced to open her mouth as Gant slobbered all over it. _No…that was my first kiss. I was saving that. _

Gant rubbed his member over Lucy's nether regions, preparing to enter. "Once I've taken you, it'll only be my name you scream."

_No. _Gant prepared to penetrate. Lucy winced. _Stop. _He entered the tip into her vagina. _Please. _He reached her hymen and pulled back. In one thrust he would rupture the membrane. In that moment though, a sweet melody pierced through the windows. It was an entrancing melody that captivated Gant like the song of the Siren He pushed off of Lucy and she regained control of her body and huddled up at the head of the bed. Gant was captivated by the sweet melody coming from outside his house and had to find the source.

Outside, in the yard, Luciella was the one singing the melody. It was a magical melody that she used sometimes to hypnotize victims so they would come to her and she could drain their magical energy. It was an aide to how she had become so powerful. Many a dark guild member had fallen victim to the captive melody and had so much magic drained from their bodies as a result, that they lost the ability to be mages. Luciella, of course, intended to do the same to Gant, but not before finding out where it was he hid the contract.

In the bushes, Natsu, Gray and Gajeel were wearing earplugs that Sakina had furnished from some flower petals. The song affected members of the opposite gender only, regardless if members of the same gender that were homo or bisexual were in the area and the song was only learnable by females…it was weird like that. Natsu, Gray and Gajeel were currently too close to Luciella's melody to avoid resisting it. The more one could hear of it, the greater the chance of hypnosis. It worked on Gant at such a low volume because he was a flat out perverted pig. Natsu, Gray and Gajeel had effectively much more control than that. Once inside the mansion they would be able to resist Luciella's song. However, first the group was to wait until Luciella had gotten the vital information, then they would go in.

"Juvia wants to learn this song," the water user squealed, "then she could sing it to Gray-sama!"

"What?" Gray asked, unable to hear her, louder than he had intended in order to hear himself speak.

"Wow, I didn't think the earplugs would be that effective," Mirajane stated.

"What?" Natsu shouted.

Erza smacked him over the head, "Quiet, you'll give our position away."

Natsu didn't hear a word she said, but he got the message that he was being too loud. If only Erza hadn't been wearing a gauntlet when she hit him. The blow really hurt.

Gant, still with no pants on, walked out into his garden, hearing the sweet siren song of Luciella's voice. The magical melody brought him to her via levitation.

_Good god could that guy put on some pants! _Erza exclaimed as she and the others were flashed.

"Waah! Why can't I see? Who turned out the lights?" Wendy cried out as Mirajane covered her eyes.

"Little girls your age shouldn't view this kind of stuff." _And neither should I for that matter._

Gajeel, Gray and Natsu now completely had their heads turned away from the scene and were sneaking towards the front entrance to wait for the signal rather than watch the scene unfolding. They could barely hear anything anyway so what was the point?

"Y-yer perdy," Gant marveled at Luciella's beauty, completely succumbed to her charm and speaking in grammatically incorrect English.

By this point, Luciella knew that her charm had worked and could stop singing. She didn't know how long she would have. The charm varied in how long it lasted after she stopped singing, so she needed to pour on the charm and be quick about it. "Oh how vlattering, aren't you ze charmer?" Luciella purred, putting up a good front as she tickled Gant under the chin.

"This is painful to watch," Mirajane sighed.

"I don't even know why I'm watching anymore," Erza added.

"I wanna see! I wanna see!" Wendy struggled, flapping her extended arms up and down with her head resting underneath Mirajane's chest.

"Wh-what brings you here?" Gant asked, full under Luciella's control.

"I just heard of a big, ztrong man capable of wooing any voman by ze use of blood contracts. Are you him?"

"Y-yes, I-I write b-blood contracts."

"And vere do you keep all of ze contracts you write, stud?"

Even Sakina gagged on that line. She'd seen Luciella act before, but for someone so obviously hideous this was just agony.

"I-In the library, with all my records."

That was the information the group needed and they prepared to head for the house.

Luciella intended to continue her melody until she could be certain of the contracts demise via a signal from Sakina, so, rather than keep up her charade, she continued to sing.

Once inside the mansion, Erza shut the door and Natsu, Gajeel and Gray popped out their earplugs.

"Okay, we need to head for the library, but," Gajeel looked around, "This place is huge."

"We'll split up," Natsu said, "And let's also try to look for Lucy at the same time." Everyone agreed and the group split up as everyone went their own separate ways, but with Happy following Natsu and Carla following Wendy.

Natsu began by rushing straight up the stairs and into the first door he could find, only to find the master bedroom. And then, there, sitting on the bed, crying, and holding onto herself, in a maid outfit, was Lucy.

"Lucy!" Natsu cried out, happily.

The voice of her hero lifted Lucy's spirits. At first she thought she imagined it, but as she lifted her head up and turned towards the direction of the voice, she saw Natsu's elated face. "Natsu." She sobbed and then leapt off the bed and ran towards him throwing herself against him and landing against his chest. She continued to cry even as he held onto her. She was safe, Natsu was here. The nightmare was over. And yet…all she could do was cry.

_That guy's gonna pay for all of this, _Natsu thought as he scowled, while consoling Lucy. He was jarred from his thoughts went something tapped him on the shoulder. He turned to see a part of Sakina's hair standing behind him and nearly jumped out of his skin. He was intrigued though when the lock of hair beckoned him forward like a finger and the next thing Natsu found himself doing was following the strand of hair, arm around Lucy as he exited the master bedroom, turned right, zipped down the hallway, made another right and zipped down another hallway and entered the third door on his right. Sakina was standing in a small room full of books and novels and turning it upside down. "Help me look! I don't see the contracts anywhere!"

Natsu suddenly had an awful epiphany.

Outside in the garden, though she continued to sing, Luciella was unaware that her song was losing its effectiveness and then, out of nowhere, Gant grabbed a quill pen out of his jacket and jammed it into the side of Luciella's shoulder. "And now you too belong to me."

**To be continued…**

* * *

**(A/N: UH OH! Unexpected twist alert! What you didn't actually think we were going to get through this without a dramatic climactic battle did you? Sorry, doesn't work that way. I wish I could've gotten this entire series out at once, but I have to characterize the magic for the 15 different maids Gant owns and plan out how this is all going to go down. I will say that it's going to be Erza and Natsu who fight Luciella while she's being controlled until Sakina can find the contracts and shut everything down. Then the beat down you have all been waiting for is going to be very satisfying. And whether you are wondering or not, I went into this chapter wondering whether or not Lucy was actually going to be raped and for our heroes to be too late, but I decided against it after I turned up the woobie meter with the masturbation scene. I hope to have the conclusion out soon, and no you won't be waiting a year for it lol. I should have it out before the end of the year, that much I can guarantee. See you guys later :D).**


	4. Rescue Mission

**(A/N: So since I'm reading One Piece and therefore am not going to be rewatching Code Geass so that I may continue Soul Chess for quite a while, I decided to finish this series up while I had the opportunity. This is the last chapter of the series and if you guys liked this, let me know and I will make a sequel utilizing the OCs from this fanfic as a parallel fanfic to canon. Let me reiterate, so that no one is confused, this is taking place BEFORE the time skip BEFORE the Edolas arc).**

Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail. All OCs from Adventurer's Gauntlet © draconichero

* * *

**Gant's Mansion**

With Lucy in his arms, Natsu rushed outside, carrying Lucy in his arms, in hopes that he wasn't being paranoid, but, sure enough, Luciella was haphazardly making physical strikes at Gant who was slowly backing away just out of her reach. Natsu could tell just from watching that her magic was sealed and soon enough her free will would be sapped just like Lucy's.

"Luciella!" Natsu called to her.

Luciella stopped attacking and slumped forward, holding her arm to her shoulder wound. "Natsu…run," she told him.

"Why the hell would I run? You're in trouble."

"Well if it isn't the brat from before. So nice of you to come by," Gant said with a smirk. He then noticed Lucy in Natsu's arms. "What are you doing with that? That is my property. Give it back!"

Natsu scowled intensely. "Don't you dare treat Lucy like she's just a thing!"

"Hmph, you don't have the right to tell me how I can and cannot treat those under my contract," Gant's hand glowed yellow, "Lucy come hither."

Lucy's body glowed and she began to unwillingly struggle against Natsu's grip, frightening her, but Natsu held her securely and stood firm in his place as his magic flared around him. In a flash of an instant the glow around Lucy stopped and Gant's hand recoiled involuntarily upward and when the slave owner glanced at it, the skin was singed.

"I won't ever give Lucy to you," Natsu scowled, "Lucy isn't a thing or a piece of property! She's a human being! She's a mage of Fairy Tail and a proud one at that! She doesn't belong to you or anyone else! Lucy is Lucy and she belongs with us! We're her friends and family! That's what it means to be a member of our guild!"

Luciella smirked. _Well said Natsu, a philosophy Grimaios and our former guildmaster would be proud of._

Gant looked frightened as he stared at Natsu's ire, but he was more frightened at how Natsu seemed to have cancelled his magic by willpower alone. _It doesn't make any sense. I should have complete control over that girl, yet somehow his will completely overpowered me and cancelled the effect. How is that possible?_

_Natsu, _Lucy clung tighter to him. She was so happy to hear those words and very comforted by them.

"Don't worry," Natsu said, keeping his grip on her firmer as he cradled her in his arms, "I'm right here. He's not going to hurt you."

_Natsu, _Lucy shed a tear. She felt so safe and secure whenever Natsu was around and this time was no different, especially since she really needed it.

"Dammit, if not for you meddling kids, Lucy would already be mine!"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Natsu scowled.

_Natsu, don't._

Gant smiled to show his teeth. "Lucy is mine under contract. I can do anything I want to her," his smile grew wider, "Anything at all."

Lucy was frightened, especially when Natsu began to let go of her. She was afraid Natsu was abandoning her, that to him she was damaged because of what happened. _N-no, I still have my hymen intact. I'm still a virgin. You can still be my first. Natsu don't let go of me! Don't let go! _"Natsu, please!" Lucy sat up, already on the ground as she turned to look at Natsu in fright. However, she could only see his back and she could not see the look of disgust and hatred reflected in his eyes.

She then saw Natsu's fist clench tighter and a spark of flame emerged from it. "Fire Dragon's…"

"Eh?" Lucy was confused as to Natsu's statement, wondering what was coming.

"ROOOAR!" A gigantic stream of flame shot out from Natsu's mouth and went streaming towards Gant like an explosion down a narrow corridor. There was no time to dodge and no time to put up a defense. And yet, despite this, Gant was still alive. His clothes were on fire, his face looked even worse. He was bleeding a lot and given the damage to his nether regions he'd never be able to procreate again. "I should've done that when I first met you," Natsu said as he wiped his mouth. "Nothing will happen to Lucy so long as I don't kill you right."

_He did that…for me? He…still cares about me? _

"How dare you do ecchi things to Lucy! You bastard!"

Gant coughed up blood and char as he stood up. He yelled at Luciella. "You fool! Why didn't you stop him?"

"I still have some free will, you pig," Luciella said with a trolling smirk.

"Get him!" Gant growled.

Under a direct order, Luciella did not have the willpower to oppose Gant as she staggered to come in between him and Natsu.

"Don't do it Luciella," Natsu urged.

"I'm sorry Natsu, but I can't control myself, please…please try to survive." Doing her best to fight it, causing herky-jerky motions to be seen throughout her limbs, Luciella extended her arms forward. "C-Crimson Bats!" Immediately a bunch of crimson colored energy-made bats flew towards Natsu. There were far too many to count, but Natsu didn't flinch as they came towards him.

"Fire Dragon's," Natsu stood still, speaking without his usual upbeat tone, and still remaining in his sour attitude, given the circumstances, "Brilliant Flame!" The bats exploded on impact with the fire he ignited around him. "Lucy," he said glancing back at his friend, "You might want to back away." He looked back at Luciella and took a stance. "I don't know how difficult it will be to keep you from getting dragged into this. Luciella is a powerful mage. I don't want either of our magic to hurt you. Just stay back and don't worry, I'll protect you."

_Natsu,_ Lucy smiled at him.

* * *

Meanwhile, Juvia had been making her way through the house and finally stumbled upon Gant's study._ The study. If the contracts aren't in the records room, they might be here. _Sakina had managed to send out a warning message using her power of the Shaperate in rather creative ways, by attaching a pair of eyes and lips to a book or light mounted on the wall and relaying the message if she saw a member of Fairy Tail of what was going on outside. Meanwhile, she continued to tear up the records room, just in case the contracts were actually there and just weren't leaping out at her.

Juvia approached Gant's polished, birch wood desk complete with comfy chair only find a fine red powder on the desk. As she rubbed her hands over the powder an explosion damaged both her and the desk and sent her flying into a bookshelf. From a corner of the room that was in Juvia's blind spot when she had entered, a maid with short purple hair stepped forward. "I will apologize to Master Gant for destroying his desk, but in the case of intruders we are ordered to fight for Master Gant and drive them out. I am Illara, the powder mage. I will be your opponent. Sleep Powder!" A whirlwind of green dust went hurtling towards Juvia. However, it seemed to have no effect on her.

"Juvia is not sleepy," Juvia remarked and she was completely unharmed from the explosion.

_That's impossible, my magic has never failed me even against S-class mages. How is she not affected, even from my fire salt powder she should've been somewhat damaged._

"Juvia will bring this battle to a quick end," Juvia extended one arm forward, "Water lock."

The mage known as Illara was trapped inside Juvia's wet prison. _Water…I should've known…my powder is ineffective against water. _Illara was dropped from Juvia's prison when the water entered her lungs and she passed out.

"Juvia apologizes. Juvia and her friends don't want to hurt you, you've been brainwashed." She returned to searching the study, "Now where are those contracts?"

* * *

As part of the search, Gray found himself stumbling upon the Trophy room, lined with rare, priceless metals and jewelry as well as trophies, according to plaques, from maid contests. There were picture frames, a prized sea bass, a sculpture of Gant minted in copper, and several different kinds of empty suits of armor: one each of gold, silver, steel, obsidian and amethyst, swords and helmets included.

_If these girls are his slaves, maybe he considers this an accomplishment. I'll look here. _Gray began by opening one of the drawers to one of the cabinets below one of the trophy cases only for a steel helmet to go flying across the room. Gray dodged and rolled to the side only to turn his head and see a short, but still post-pubescent (though still petit) girl with short, blond hair with fairy curl pigtails. She smiled at Gray.

"Master doesn't like it when strangers touch his things."

"Who are you?"

As her hand sparked with purple lightning the girl used the strange power to call the silver sword from its respective suit of armor, to her to wield it. "My name is Tomo, I am master's magnetic mage." She gave Gray a look of determination. "And I will drive you out of master's trophy room."

_Just my luck, _Gray thought to himself.

* * *

Gajeel, with about as great a sense of direction, under pressure, as a squirrel with a death wish, stumbled across a large empty hall with yellow ceramic tile floors, olden style paintings on the ceiling and large staircases leading up to a second floor in many parts of the hall. There was also a large glass door at the other end leading to an outdoor balcony. Gajeel was in the ballroom.

_Man, I have the worst luck. There is no way someone would keep contracts here. _He turned his head towards the staircase. _I wonder if there are any doors on the second floor. _As Gajeel headed towards the staircase though, a woman dropped down from up above and Gajeel dodged. Her leg had created a crater in the floor, indicating the very powerful force she had struck with. "And just who are you?" Gajeel wanted to know.

The woman stepped forward, revealing a maid with long green hair and eyes. "I am Sasami, master's most treasured maid." It was the same woman Lucy had met when she met Gant for the first time. "I will drive out all intruders from master's home."

"Bring it on, bitch," Gajeel said with a bountiful smile. "Fighting's more my thing than searching for a needle in a haystack anyway." Without missing a beat, Gajeel called out, "Iron Dragon's Sword!" He struck forward Sasami and with the weapon split her in half. _Oh shit, should I have held back? _Gajeel knew that the group had intended NOT to kill the maids, but after what he witnessed, he didn't think he was going to do THAT much damage.

However, much to his amazement, Sasami's entire body turned silver, eradicating all detail from her body making her look like an unfinished life-like figurine. However, then the silver transformed into a liquid puddle on the floor and slipped between Gajeel's feet. Sasami reformed herself and attacked with robotic precision as she transformed her left arm into a blade. It was all a part of her magic ability: Liquid Metal.

"Iron Dragon's Scales!" Gajeel called out quickly, in order to block with the side of his arm as Sasami emotionlessly pushed against it. "So you do have some fight in you, you're not half bad. This should be fun!"

Sasami made no response and just transformed her entire body into a puddle of goo. She strapped herself to Gajeel's body like a strait jacket and then transformed her head into a spear. She then tried to jab him through the face, but Gajeel, covered his entire body with his Iron Dragon Scales and Sasami could not pierce through his forehead.

"Iron Dragon's Roar!" Sasami's spearhead was blown off the rest of her body and she let go of Gajeel and her body reformed as she took back to her standard appearance. She turned both of her arms into gigantic axe blades. Gajeel smirked and readied himself. _Now this is my kind of rescue mission._

* * *

Mirajane opened a door that led to a staircase going down. It was dark with no lights on and darkness generally had things to hide so the S-class mage slowly proceeded down the staircase, feeling the wall for a light switch and sliding her hand down the banister for balance. When she reached the bottom of the staircase, feet flat on the ground, she still had not found a light switch.

As she took two steps forward, her footsteps echoing, a voice called out. "Lights on." Suddenly a bright light blinded Mirajane momentarily as she stared into the basement. All around the walls were rocky like a medieval dungeon in a castle. Mirajane looked all around there were racks upon racks of sexual toys and gizmos as well as whips, chains, ropes, you name it, it was somewhere in the room.

"Wh-what is this place?" Mirajane asked, looking around.

The click-clacking of heels coming from a pair of stilettos alerted Mirajane. Over on the far side of the room from the stairs was an ebony-skinned woman wearing a maid outfit. She had glossy lips, yellow eyes, short, dark-scarlet hair and wore a sadistic smile as she looked at Mirajane. In her hand was a leather whip rolled up in her hand. She held the handle with her right hand.

Behind her was a young mage, around Lucy's age, dressed in a rubber dress, or what used to be a dress. The dress part of her outfit had been torn off just beneath her navel and she was nude there with several red marks on both her legs left by whippings to them. Her arms were in handcuffs attached to the wall and hanging up over her head. Her sunset red hair was cascading down around her, hiding her face and the massive amounts of cleavage her chest was sporting from her open robe almost down to her navel.

"Who is that?" Mirajane asked.

"Just someone who didn't know her place, the bitch wanted to dominate Master Gant. He typically doesn't like that unless it's under the right circumstances." The dark-skinned maid walked over to her masochistic partner. "So I am training her to be allowed to dominate him, but first she has to understand what it's like to be a masochist. That way, when we switch roles, she will know how to more easily please her victim because she knows what it's like to be on the bottom. She'll hesitate at first, but she will come to revel in her hidden sadism all the more after having her spirit broken." The maid tilted her partner's head up with the handle of her whip revealing her face. The teen had visible bags under her eyes, which were red, and eye-makeup around the sides, giving her face a gothic look. However, what bothered Mirajane was the fact that this woman was smiling. "Isn't that right, Flare?"

"Yes…Flare is a masochist, Mistress Nocturna. Flare likes…your punishment." The teen laughed nervously.

"What have you done to that innocent girl?"

"Innocent?" Nocturna asked as she turned away from Flare, letting the girl's head bob down again as it was too heavy to hold up. "My little Flare is a very dirty, punishment craving little whore, isn't she?"

"Yes, mistress Flare is a whore. Hurt this woman and punish Flare more!"

"She doesn't know any better under that stupid spell! Aren't you also contracted? How could you do this to her?"

"Under contract? Me? I am employed here. I am paid by Master Gant when his father was still alive. I have worked for this family for ten years. No one controls me except for myself. And Master Gant's contracts do not change one's desires or will. Master Gant simply saps the free will of those he brings here so that they will serve him. One's sexual desires and fetishes are not affected."

"Mistress has trained Flare for five months now," Flare said, laughing nervously. "Flare likes it."

Suddenly Nocturna's whip coiled around Flare's neck. "Did I say you could talk Flare?"

Flare began grasping at her throat.

"Stop it! She can't breathe!" Mirajane exclaimed.

"She'll be fine, asphyxiation is part of the training."

"I said, stop it!" With a fierce kick, Mirajane entered her Satan Soul form flung forward and her foot impacted onto Nocturna's face as she jerked the whip and uncoiled it so as not to injure Flare's neck.

"That was foolish," Nocturna said, as she rubbed the bruise. "If you had kicked me any harder, you might've killed my little pet in the process."

Flare coughed as she regained power of her lungs again. She just stared creepily over at Mirajane and Nocturna.

"Don't you have something else you should be doing? I don't see how this girl is your concern. Master Gant does not control me. I'm under no obligation to fight you and don't you have a friend to save?"

"Natsu will protect Lucy. I trust my friends, I can put aside looking for the contracts for the moment. You need to be stopped, though. I can't let you hurt another human being, even if they're not one of our own."

"What makes you think she wants to be saved?" Nocturna asked.

"I suppose I will find out," Mirajane took a stance.

"You need to understand the kind of position you're in, whitey." The next thing Mirajane knew her opponent was in close proximity to her. "Lights out." The room went dark and the door to the room slammed shut as Nocturna attempted to drive her knee into Mirajane, but her knee was caught by Mirajane's clawed hand. Nocturna was grabbed by her right forearm and flung into the wall.

"Light's on!" Mirajane exclaimed. She beat her wings slowly, once.

"You think I'm scared of you. I can make any man or woman cry out in pain and ecstasy with my Torture Magic." Nocturna materialized another electrical vibration rod in her other hand.

"You should be," Mirajane said to her, "Because by the end of this, you will be apologizing and you will be the one calling _me_ mistress."

"You've got spunk. I like that in women before I break them. Ex-quip vibration rods!" Nocturan stood up and ex-quipped two electrical sparking vibrating rods. "Now then, miss I believe you need to be taught a lesson about not interfering with the work of others."

"I have a name, you know, I'm Mirajane of Fairy Tail."

"And I am Nocturna, but you already know that, but I am known as Mistress Nocturna, the Bondage Queen!"

"It doesn't matter to me your title. For what you and your master have done with Lucy," Mirajane appeared so swiftly that she had disarmed Nocturna and had her pinned against the wall, face first, one arm in Mirajane's grasp with the white-haired woman looking like she was going to break it, "I'll break you. Lights off." The room went dark.

* * *

As chaos swept through the mansion, Wendy and Carla kept looking in different doors. So far Wendy had been lucky enough not to encounter one of the battle maids, but her luck was about to change for better or for worse. As she entered the attic, Wendy saw a strongbox sitting on a crate in the back by the window.

"Ah!" the little girl cried out and ran over to the strongbox and picked it up, it was light and whatever was in it felt weightless. She shook it by her ear. She could hear paper rattling around on the inside. "Paper!" she declared triumphantly holding it out in front of her. "I think I found the contracts!" she cried happily.

"Good work, now let's go back to Sakina and—"

Before Carla could finish, Wendy was struck by a barrage of small projectiles that sent her flying into the wall and into a rack of costumes. "Wendy!" Carla called out.

Wendy popped her head out from underneath a queenly looking robe. Across from the Exceed and Dragon Slayer, there stood a maid with short blue hair. "I am Etsuko, the Marble Mage." A bunch of tiny thumb sized marbles appeared around Etsuko's humerus and shoulders. "That is Master Gant's private property that no one is allowed to touch, put it back."

"But the contracts are in here!" Wendy said, holding up the box. "If we rewrite them you will be free."

Etsuko either didn't hear Wendy or was so fargone that she didn't care because she prepared to attack again. "Little girl you are five years too young to understand what Master Gant means to us. Prepare to be annihilated."

As Etsuko rushed forward, creating a sword shape with her marbles and attempted to attack Wendy, a torrent of water splashed up from down below. A hole in the attic showed Wendy that the 5th floor attic was directly above the 1st floor lobby. Etsuko and her marbles fell down as Wendy rushed over to the hole in the attic and saw Juvia down in the lobby.

"Juvia?"

"Wendy?" Juvia had made a hole in the lobby in order to create a faster path of transport for herself in between floors. Catching Etsuko in her attack was just a bonus.

Wendy held out the strongbox. "I think I found the contracts."

"That's great!" Juvia exclaimed only to notice Etsuko getting up. "Quickly! Jump down! Juvia will give you a ride to the records room so you can give those to Sakina."

"Okay!"

"Wait! Wendy!" Carla was going to say that she could just fly Wendy to Sakina, but Wendy already leapt down as Juvia splashed up a fountain of water that she then, once Wendy landed on it, carried Wendy towards the second floor west wing.

"Thanks Juvia!" Wendy waved and ran off with Carla doing her best to keep up with Wendy's head start.

Juvia waited for Etsuko to get up and prepared to strike again if she attacked again.

* * *

If it was any wonder why none of the other maids had attacked the rest of the group it was because the remainder of them had already been effortlessly defeated by Erza who stood triumphantly over them now in the 4th floor penthouse. Why Gant needed one on top of the ballroom, master bedroom and gigantic main lobby was anyone's guess though.

The maids lay groaning on the ground behind Erza as the queen of the fairies ex-quipped her standard armor whilst she stared out the window. She saw the battle going on between Natsu and Luciella and knew that she had to help out.

Outside, Natsu and Luciella were still going at it. The Vampire of Adventurer's Gauntlet was uninjured and not the least bit fatigued whilst Natsu had been giving it his all without using his secret arts and wasn't getting anywhere, which frustrated him.

"Fire Dragon's Roar!" Natsu shouted.

"Crimson Barrier!" A misty barrier, like many times before in their clash, appeared in front of Luciella and protected her from Natsu's attack in its entirety. Both fighters were holding back their power considerably and yet Luciella was the only one not feeling any amount of fatigue, which clearly showed the difference between the two.

"That's it! Luciella, I order you stop holding back!"

Lucy gasped, Luciella felt a wave of dread and Natsu realized that his mind controlled comrade was about to unleash a powerful attack.

Sorrowfully, Luciella said, "I'm sorry about zis, Natsu of Fairy Tail." She drew her arms out at her sides and then crossed her arms over each other taking the same stance Gray would if he were to use Iced Shell. "Crimson Shockwave!"

"Fire Dragon's Brilliant Flame!" Using the strike defensively, Natsu braced him for whatever was about to come forward. He watched as Luciella unleashed a crescent arc of crimson colored energy that ripped towards him. It was too wide to dodge and if he jumped or ducked over it, it would hit Lucy. Natsu was confident that because Luciella hadn't used this attack yet that he had a good gauge of her power and that this was just one of her more powerful spells, but he was wrong. Luciella was much stronger than Natsu could have anticipated and the crescent-shaped, blade-like energy ripped right through Natsu's attack's perimeter. "Fire Dragon's Roar!" Natsu did his best to stop the strike, but it tore right through his flame breath and dug into his stomach.

"NATSU!" Lucy called out to him.

Natsu dropped to one knee and clutched his stomach. Despite his greatest efforts, Luciella's attack still had the capacity to rip right through his skin and almost cut into his stomach and intestines. Any deeper and she might've done serious damage. Natsu had to remain absolutely still to avoid bleeding profusely. Using his fire magic he seared the wound shut, but the blow had cut his stamina considerably and the burning scar on his stomach hurt a lot. _If she does another one of those, I don't know if I can stop it. If Lucy wasn't here I could just dodge it. I need some help._

Luciella repeated her stance. "Crimson Shockwave!"

Natsu went to stood up to do his best to outlast his attack, but suddenly a lance of pure, yellow colored, energy went sailing towards the shockwave and disintegrated it.

"Looks like you could use some help," A familiar voice called out. Standing before Natsu, garbed in leather pants, a thick leather coat, fingerless leather gloves, leather boots and a pointed leather hat, all of it reddish-brown was Erza.

_What kind of armor is that? _Natsu wondered.

"Who are you?" Gant asked.

Erza stood up having been crouching down slightly and pushed up her hat so both of her eyes could be seen. "You can call me Erza Scarlet, queen of Fairy Tail." Erza said with a smirk. She looked at Luciella. "Crimson Nightmare, when Gajeel first said the name, I didn't really think it was what I just saw," she pointed her finger with a bent wrist, "But that attack just now was unmistakable. Many have claimed to have Crimson Nightmare, but yours is the real deal. It's one of the three lost Nosferatu arts alongside Twilight Nightmare and Shadow Nightmare. In other words: technically you are a real vampire, aren't you?"

"Not as you vould know it," Luciella said, "But I am as close to as a traditional vampire in ze modern day as one can get."

"I thought so, and that's what makes this armor perfect to combat you," Erza reached into her coat and pulled out three silver-spiked daggers. "It's an armor specifically designed to combat magical creatures of the night and completely counter their powers. Although it's used for all nocturnal and dark creatures, it is simply referred to as Vampire Hunter Armor. With it, I will subdue you."

"Ha! Go ahead and try!" Gant shouted.

"Why don't you go to sleep?" Erza said with a calm scowl. She threw all three daggers she was holding, but Luciella interfered and used her Crimson Barrier to block Erza's attacks. The daggers penetrated right through the barrier, but lodged themselves into it and did not pass straight through. "Your magic is strong, queen of the night."

"So is yours, Erza Scarlet."

Erza held her arms out at her sides and ex-quipped two jousting lances made of silver ore. "Let's dance." Erza declared.

* * *

Back inside the mansion, Wendy made it to where Sakina was and shouted triumphantly. "Miss Sakina, I found the contracts…I think!" She was holding the strongbox over her head.

"Good, bring it here," Sakina said. Wendy placed it on a stack of papers. "Hmm, it's locked, but no matter." Sakina used the power of The Shaperate to transform the strongbox itself into one mad out of transparent glass and, seeing the rolled up scrolls inside grabbed the box with her hair and smashed it against the wall, scooping up all of the contracts with locks of her hair. She held the individual scrolls in front of her. "Hmm," Sakina said studying the first page of the scroll in front of her eyes that so conveniently happened to also be Lucy's. "It will take me some time to read these things through so that I can alter them properly, but when I do, everyone will be okay."

"You can do it!" Wendy was ecstatic.

"There isn't a single inanimate object the Shaperate cannot change in some form," Sakina said with a smirk, "Now, let's get down to business."

* * *

Back outside, Erza was going toe to toe with Luciella. Erza's silver-made lances were the perfect weapon for combatting Luciella and so even with the vampire using her best defenses, each blow shattered Luciella's defense with ease.

Luciella levitated into the air. "Crimson Bats!" Luciella shot forward a multitude of crimson colored energy bats at Erza as the little winged creatures fluttered towards the red haired mage. With deft dexterity, Erza swatted and slashed each one away, dispelling each creature with a battle cry.

_Impressive. I have met wielders of zis zame armor who vere utterly annihilated by my powers. Zis girl is zomething else. _"Crimson Howl!" A tornado of crimson energy barreled towards Erza as she protected herself by momentarily switching armors to her Adamantine Armor. Even with no armor she couldn't hope to dodge in time, so blocking was her only means of defense and it was still a close call because she barely ex-quipped the armor in time.

"Erza!" Natsu cried out, but as the dust cleared, Erza had switched to her Heaven's Wheel Armor and had taken to the skies and was attacking Luciella with a barrage of telekinetic swords.

"Crimson Barrier!" With a wave of her hand, Luciella deflected all of Erza's blades. "Crimson Lightning!" With a forward thrust of her arm, a fierce, elongated and thick bolt of pure, crimson colored, plasma, as big as a human torso, ripped towards Erza and sent her slamming back to the ground. Erza sparked all over from paralytic electromagnetism. She ex-quipped back to her Vampire Hunter armor as Luciella touched to the ground for a strike. "Crimson Blade!" A thick vertical crescent of energy went slamming down towards Erza, but she dodged back and attacked.

"Solar chains!" Erza dug into her coat and flung out a pair of glowing, turquoise, chains made up of metatarsal sized chain-links. She used them to bind Luciella as she bound her arms to her torso. "You were right. You aren't a true vampire, just an imitator. A true creature of the night would've been burned by the holy energy of these chains. My armor can affect your magic, for that is true vampire magic, but you yourself are not a true vampire. How interesting. You are certainly a very interesting opponent, Luciella Vamplasa."

"I could zay the zame about you, Erza Scarlet. Crimson Nightshade!" An outpour of crimson energy flowed from Luciella's ribcage, outward, disintegrating the chains on her body. "Crimson Lightning!"

"That won't work!" Erza rushed forward and met Luciella's attack head on and pulling a blade out of thin air as she ducked down. Thanks to her armor, the attack was mostly nullified and Erza hacked upwards with both hands on the wide broadsword. "Witchblade!"

"Way to go Erza!" Natsu exclaimed.

Luciella staggered back as she bled from the injury and looked back at Gant with a pained smile as she held her wound with her arm. "I tried my best," she said, trying to duck out of the fight.

"Oh I don't think so. You will use all of your power to crush that brat and the other brat you didn't finish off. You will not defy me again!"

"Luciella!" Erza called out to her.

Luciella did her best to resist as she staggered back and forth, trying to fight the omniscient power Gant had on her brain, but it was to no avail. Luciella's friendly demeanor when she stopped and looked at Erza, was gone. Luciella was methodical and looked poised to kill. "Crimson Lightning." Smacking her left wrist over her loosely made right fist a bolt of human sized lightning ripped towards Erza. Even with her Vampire Hunter armor, Erza not only lost her hat, but took serious injury to her fatigue, the leather armor took most of the blow though.

"Erza!" Natsu called out.

Luciella took two steps forward. "Crimson Puncture." With a simple wave of her hand a blunt blow was dealt to Erza and she bled from the side of her face. With more casual steps and waves of her hand, Erza was pushed back towards Natsu unable to even make a motion to stop the advancing mage.

"Stop it! You'll kill her!" Natsu rushed towards Luciella, fist imbued with flame.

"Crimson Decimator." Holding her wrists casually together in front of her and opening up her hands like a blossoming Chrysanthemum, Luciella blasted Natsu back and sent him flying near Lucy. Natsu was in pretty awful shape after an attack of that magnitude. He could barely get up.

_She's too strong, _Erza grunted while on one knee. _Dammit, I had no idea the members of Adventurer's Gauntlet were this powerful. I dreadfully underestimated her. _Erza looked at the eerie, merciless, icy, friendless stare, Luciella was giving her and Natsu. _Look at her just standing there. We're no match for her and she's fully aware of it. Damn. _Erza ran forward with all her strength and might as she ex-quipped her Vampire Hunter armor again. As she ran forward the hat flew off her head. "Witchblade!"

Erza ran towards Luciella and swung only to find that she was the one who was slashed as Luciella's arm glowed brightly with blade-shaped crimson energy and Witchblade was snapped in half.

_She's too…powerful. _Erza slumped to her knees and fell over. She remained conscious. She wanted to get up, she and Natsu would never give up, but they were clearly outmatched by a woman who had to be on Gildarts' level or above.

"Finish them," Gant ordered.

Luciella's bright energy blade extended two more feet. "Don't do it Luciella," Natsu said, rising to his feet. He too was heavily battered from the fight. Luciella arched her torso to the side and pulled her arm back to thrust the blade into Erza's chest. She thrust forward.

"ERZA!"

Erza waited for the blow to strike as it aimed down towards her heart, but then finally the blade stopped a sixth of an inch in front of her leather jacket.

"I don't see any blood, what are you waiting for? Finish her!"

Suddenly a cylinder of yellow energy encased both Lucy and Luciella around their entire bodies (though Lucy's was bent considering she was on the ground, leaning on one arm).

"What? What's happening?"

Inside the mansion Sakina dropped to her knees and slumped to the ground in exhaustion she had to use her shaperate powers with such precision no less than 17 times that it took a lot out of her.

"Hey! Are you okay?" Wendy asked her.

"I'm fine, just a little winded," Sakina said with smirk, "We did it. These contracts are now null en void."

"That's amazing! What did you do?"

"I rewrote the contract so that they expire after two seconds of the signature, by this point they're already way past their expiration date."

"That really is clever," Wendy agreed.

"I just hope I wasn't too late. Your friends were battling Luciella. Apparently Gant doesn't have to have a person sign a contract in order to create one. He had a bunch of blanks in this strongbox I guess just for this situation. He must be a specialized blood mage to be able to pull that off."

"Ah! Are they going to be okay?"

Sakina got to her feet. "Let's go find out."

So one by one all of the contracts were let go and all of the fighting stopped, except for the battle with Mirajane and Nocturna, but that battle had already ended a while back and, as Mirajane promised. Well…

"Yes! Yes mistress! Punish me! Punish this masochistic insensitive bitch!" Nocturna cried out.

Mirajane, still in her Satan Soul form was now holding one of the whips and using it to whip Nocturna across the back as she hung suspended from the ceiling if she took her legs off the ground. She was tied together with leather bondage gear and her arms were tied behind her back and attached to a length of chain attached to the pulley system connected to the ceiling. Also the lights were on again.

Nocturna had already been subdued by the powerful S-class mage and because the lights were off, it couldn't be said for certain exactly how it happened.

"Now say you're sorry!" Mirajane demanded and whipped Nocturna.

"Ahhh! I'm sorry mistress! I'm sorryyyyy!" Nocturna squealed.

"I think you've learned your lesson." Mirajane said and undid the winch and let Nocturna collapse on the floor. She went over to Flare and checked on her condition, switching out of Satan Soul as she walked over to her. Outside, Mirajane could sense that the chaos was subsiding so she knew everything was done for the most part. She tilted Flare's face to look at her and caressed it. "Hey," she said in a sweet, somewhat motherly voice. "Are you okay?"

"Flare is okay," Flare said, a little groggy. With the contract broken Flare's true self was returning. She had been aware of what was going on around her the whole time, but she didn't fight it at all. "Are you Flare's new mistress?" Because of the psychological damage done to her, Flare was still largely a willing masochist, and therefore, as Mirajane had feared, did not understand that she was free to go.

"Don't be silly," Mirajane said to her sweetly, "You're free again. You can go back to your guild. I'm sure they miss you."

"Flare is free?" Flare was still confused, like an animal that didn't understand what death was and was wondering why his master wasn't getting up.

"Of course, your contract is null en void," Mirajane said and began undoing the latches on the cuffs. Flare's arms dropped to her sides.

"Flare is…free," Flare said again. She laughed nervously as she had done before and then started to cry. Mirajane put her arms around her and comforted the younger mage and let Flare use her chest as her pillow to get it out of her system.

* * *

Back outside, Luciella was using her magic to restore some of Natsu and Erza's magic reserves. She didn't have to give them too much. They had just reached the point of really near total collapse so Luciella was able to heal their pain and fatigue to stabilize them and eventually Sakina and Wendy came outside and the younger mage took it from there.

As Luciella stood by and watched she extended her arm backwards behind her and her palm glowed red for a moment as she outstretched it. Gant, who had been slowly tiptoeing around towards the back of the house, was immobilized.

"And just vere do you zink you're going?" Luciella asked without even turning to look at the bastard. She turned around and smirked. "Natsu, vould you like a vree shot?"

Natsu cracked his knuckles and walked past Luciella. "You have had this coming for a long time," Natsu scowled. He charged towards Gant and picked him up. "Fire Dragon's WING ATTACK!" Natsu sent Gant soaring into the air, several stories above his mansion.

"Crimson Hold," Luciella said casually and brought Gant screaming down towards the ground into a crater. Natsu walked over to Erza and the two slapped their hands against each other. Erza went over to the whimpering sad sack of near dead flesh that was Gant and saw him whimpering under her very presence. She then turned away. "Tch, forget it. He's not worth the effort. Lucy do you—" Erza stopped herself when she saw that Lucy was holding herself, trying not to fall apart at the seams.

Luciella pushed casually past the red head. "Allow me."

"Why what are you going to do?" Natsu asked.

Sakina put a hand on her chest. "Luciella can reject emotional pain. I used to look no different from any other human. And well," Sakina gestured to her body, "You can see the result."

"What? You mean Lucy could look like you?"

"What's wrong with the way I look?" Sakina asked suddenly surrounding Natsu's head with locks of her hair pointing at him like sharp pointy spikes.

"N-n-nothing," he backed off.

"Still, if you change Lucy's external appearance," Erza said, while imagining what Lucy would look like with Orange sclera and green skin and freakishly long nails as well as a forked tongue. "Won't that damage her even further? She's not exactly the most self-confident person even now."

"I am much stronger than Lucy," Sakina said, "And at the time my power, the Shaperate, was incomplete and untrained. My transformation is a part of that. Lucy is a Stellar Spirit mage and her magic power is way less." Sakina's eyes turned sympathetic. "Though her emotional scar might be deeper, it will not take as much of Luciella's magical power to repair her soul."

"But isn't confronting things that have happened to you—"

"Natsu!" Erza snapped. "Do you really think this is something she can just forget about and move on from?"

Natsu shut up and understood.

"She will not completely forget about what happened. She can still grieve or feel dread, but the psychological trauma will be completely taken away as if there is an emotional void or lock in her heart or soul. If I did not have such a thing from Luciella, I would've withered away, possibly joined a dark guild."

"You almost look like you belong in one," Happy remarked. Sakina glared at him with her glowing eyes. Happy used Natsu as a human shield.

All throughout this talk, Luciella still was using Crimson Hold on Gant. Finally she hoisted him into the air and. "Crimson Hold: Lock." She locked gant in place as he was hoisted above the group.

"Luciella-sama?"

"Erza ztep away vrom me, I don't vant you to get caught in zis," Luciella said considering Erza was standing right next to her.

"Why? What are you going to do? Aren't you going to heal Lucy?"

"In a minute. Right now, I have zome unfinished business vith zis man."

"Hey come on, you're going to make Lucy better aren't you? We already gave him what for do we have to."

"Zilence, dragon slayer! I am a mother. If ve let zis man live, he'll just lick his vounds and try again another time. I vill not allow that."

"Hold on, what about the council. We can imprison him like you did his father."

Luciella scowled. "I have made my decision. Erza, stand back."

Erza knew better than to make a mage that had just shown to have superior skill to her make her repeat herself more than once, and stepped back.

Luciella held her hands apart to make a C-shape on the right side of her body. Crimson colored dust began forming in between her hands and around them, but it was thick and chalky and incredibly oblique. Luciella's yellow eyes also turned feral, not emotionless when Gant had control of her, but if one looked at Luciella's eyes right now, they'd see less of a woman and more of a creature of the night.

_Mist? _Erza wondered what was so dangerous about a mist or fog or whatever it was Luciella was conjuring.

"Crimson Fog." Luciella brought her hands together and the declared to be so fog straightened out, Luciella rotated her arms back and thrust them forward as the fog ripped towards Gant and then slowed down as it passed through him. Gant began screaming at the top of his lungs.

"What the hell are you doing to him?"

"Crimson Fog: my most powerful and my most lethal technique. It burns and eradicates everything around it slowly like watching a plant shrivel up at the rate water drips from a leaky faucet. It destroys everything in its path, but for humans it…well you'll see in a moment." The fog finished passing through Gant and evaporated and dispersed. Knowing the effects, the moment the fog evaporated, Sakina covered Wendy's eyes.

"Waah! Why did it get pitch black again? I wanna see! Let me see!" she flailed her arms in front of her.

"Trust me, this is for your own good," Sakina told her.

Moments later a blood encrusted skeleton fell from the sky. Erza was wide-eyed, Carla looked like she was going to be sick. Natsu and Happy both had WTF faces. The skeleton had a still beating heart and several still held in and intact, organs and muscles.

"Hmpf, it is amazing he is zis well held together. Normally no vone lasts a zingle pass. Zould he count himself lucky or unlucky zat he is vat?" Luciella's hand was encased in crimson light.

"Hey! Wait!" Natsu said. "He's already dead! There's no need to do anymore."

"His heart yet beats. You vould be zurprised how zat can zometimes come back to bite you." She looked at what remained of Gant. "Crimson Impact."

Sakina turned her head to the side. Erza winced and brought her hand up by her face. Natsu glared. Luciella looked at him now that Gant's remains were in pieces. "I do not regret vat I have done and I do not believe my actions vere uncalled vor. You can veel disdain towards me and consider my murder unjust, but I have done ze world a vavor by getting rid of zis…pig."

"She has a point. This man was an abomination of our race."

"And you think for that he should die?"

"Take a look at Lucy's condition and ask that again."

"That's low Erza!" Natsu snapped.

"It's reality," Erza scowled.

Natsu humphed. Luciella put a hand on Natsu's shoulder. "Are you not happy, Natsu zat he is dead?"

"Strangely, I am. And that terrifies me," Natsu said, shaking his head at the last sentence.

"I feel the same, but I'm willing to admit it at least," Erza said.

Luciella looked at the both of them. "Zat fear means zat you two are ztill very human. You zould hold on to zat."

Both Natsu and Erza felt a little better.

Things panned out rather well, Luciella helped Lucy recover and the other maids were set free and given to the council to be returned to their guilds. Because Mirajane did not hear about Luciella's pain rejection, nor did Flare show any obvious signs, after her good cry, of being traumatized, she left that mansion with what she had endured. If she had stayed, and Fairy Tail had never gotten involved with Gant in the first place, she would have eventually been given back her free will and killed Gant without hesitation before returning to her guild: Raven Tail.

At the moment though, her guild was a dark guild and if the council knew that, with her in their custody, she would never be allowed to go back so, in the middle of the night, Flare escaped to return to Raven Tail, or such was her intention, but that is a story for another time.

Upon returning to Fairy Tail, after Natsu's motion sickness wore off from being teleported (by this point Wendy's Troia spell had worn off), Erza, Luciella, Sakina and Natsu chatted with one another.

"Our guilds zould cooperate more often," Luciella stated at one point.

"I agree," Erza nodded, "Intra guild relationships are a good thing for us official guild. It's disappointing we didn't have your guild to fight against the Balam Alliance."

"Our glory days are long zince passed, Erza Scarlet, but zere vill be other battles vith ze dark guilds. Ve vill assist you if you call upon us. Do not vorget zo, zat because of zis, you owe us."

Erza nodded. "Call upon us if you need us. Fairy Tail will do whatever it can to do what it is right."

"I am glad to hear zat," Luciella smiled.

"Natsu," Sakina said, feeling guilty as she held one of her arms with her other arm and avoided eye contact. "I am really sorry I was so uncooperative. If I had been less selfish…"

"It's okay," Natsu said, "Really. We had no idea we were racing against the clock. Besides, Luciella said Lucy would be back to her old self soon thanks to her treatment, so it all works out."

"It is not all right!" Erza decked Natsu one. Natsu rubbed his sore head. "Think about how traumatic this situation would be for Lucy if we didn't have Luciella."

"Oww," Natsu groaned, "You didn't have to hit me." Erza scowled. "I-I mean y-yes ma'am, I understand."

Erza looked at Sakina though. "Really though, I can't blame you. Considering…what you've become, something really awful must have happened to you. I do wish you had been more cooperative though. It makes me curious as to what she had to help you cope with."

"Well I—" Sakina began, but Luciella stuck her arm in front of the dark sorceress.

"A ztory vor another time," Luciella stated. She looked up at the sun. It vill be high noon zoon. Ve should be heading home."

"Why what happens at high noon?" Natsu asked.

"My powers are at zere weakest. I vas able to overpower you so eazily because we vere vighting at night. I believe I told you zat my powers are amplified at nighttime. If I do not take a nap at high noon, or at ze very least ztay out of ze sun, I vill become very vatigued until ze sun sets."

"I thought you weren't a real creature of the night," Erza stated.

"Again, a ztory for another time," Luciella told her. "Ve must go."

"Come back soon okay," Natsu said with a big grin.

"Yes, ve vill be in touch." Luciella and Sakina then made their way away from civilization so they could safely teleport. After that Erza went back inside to do guild-oriented stuff, while Natsu went to go check on Lucy. He found her on her couch feeling down. She was not traumatized, but she still seemed a little depressed, though then again who wouldn't? Even when Natsu made Sakina remember her traumatic experience it struck a chord in her.

Lucy still had a bite on her neck from Luciella, but she was told that would heal within ten days. Loke was back where he belonged and Lucy had summoned him and hugged him because he was all right, but right now she could only think about how there were still things she had to know.

"Are you okay?" Natsu asked when he first walked in the door. Lucy didn't respond. Natsu scratched his head. "Okay, I guess that was a stupid question."

"I'm fine," Lucy said and smiled, "And I'm glad you came by."

"But we cut it way too close!" Natsu exclaimed. "Gant he…"

"Just don't talk about that okay!" Lucy said quickly, wincing, "I feel better if you just don't bring it up, all right."

_"Zere vill ztill be zigns of trauma over ze next couple of days, but ze vill zubside. Just do not make her talk about it and ze vill recover quicker."_

"Okay," Natsu said and sat down next to Lucy on her couch. "Lucy…I—"

Lucy interrupted Natsu. "Will you always be there to save me when I'm too weak to save myself!"

Natsu stood up and exclaimed triumphantly. "Of course! You know you can count on me! And on anyone in the guild! We're your friends!"

Lucy smiled more. "Thank you."

Natsu sat down again. "It must have been terrible. I can't even picture it."

Lucy sniffed and wiped her eye.

"Whoops, sorry. I-I'm not supposed to talk about it," Natsu panicked, "I—"

"Natsu?"

"Yeah?"

"Can I…" Lucy looked at Natsu looking like she was about to break down again. "Can I cry on you?"

"Cry, but…" Natsu wanted Lucy to be happy.

"Please?" Lucy sniffed.

Natsu pulled her in close without hesitation. "Of course you can." He told her. Lucy cried again, just as she had done when Natsu rescued her. Natsu stayed there for her until she felt better and when she was all done, she smiled again and it made Natsu happy too to see her smile.

As he began to leave, assured that Lucy was fine, he said to her: "You can always call upon me if you need anything."

"Thank you, Natsu," Lucy said to him.

Natsu smiled and left with Happy who had been uncharacteristically quiet the entire time.

As Lucy closed the door behind her rose haired friend she leaned against the door and smiled awkwardly while blushing. _I couldn't ask him, _she thought to herself. She felt a powerful thump in her chest. _How am I supposed to confront these feelings I have for you welling up inside me? I mean I…_ she remembered what she did when she was at Gant's and flushed. _Ah! I can't believe I really did that! I mean, that had to be a result of the contract! That couldn't have been my real feelings! I mean! I wasn't! That wasn't for sexual satisfaction, I just wanted Natsu with me and…and… _Lucy continued to flush, but stopped freaking out and smiled. "And I like him."

_Natsu…when will I be able to admit how I really feel?_

* * *

**That Evening**

It was a rough night at the guild for Natsu. He hadn't been able to sleep, thankfully Mirajane was burning the midnight oil so he had someone to talk to and he needed to talk to her specifically. Something had been bothering him about the whole experience.

"You really mean that?" Mirajane asked when she heard what he had to say.

"Is that wrong?" Natsu asked her. "I mean…Lucy was the one in danger, but—"

Mirajane reached across the table and smiled with her eyes closed as she ruffled Natsu's hair. "I think it's sweet." She smiled with a comforting, heart-warmed, open-eyed smile, "Lisana would be happy that you were thinking of her like that, if she were still here. But you still did it for Lucy, you know that. You just miss Lisana. We all do."

"Yeah," Natsu admitted.

"And that's why it's sweet," She ruffled his head again and then folded her arms on her side of the table. "Feel better?" she asked.

"Yeah, thanks," Natsu said and then yawned. "I'm tired now all of a sudden. Night Mira."

"Good night, Natsu, have good dreams, okay?"

"Yeah, thanks," Natsu went to his room where Happy was already asleep, hand on stomach, lying on his back, drooling and dreaming of fish.

Natsu lay down in bed and went to sleep. As he fell asleep he wondered if he and his friends would ever see Adventurer's Gauntlet again. They would, of course.

But that's another story…

**Blood Contract: END**

* * *

**(A/N: And that's a wrap folks. So to address a few things. 1. This is a spin-off from canon so stuff that I changed a little bit, if I decide to continue the series will fall in line with this "new path" I've set off. Most notably, before you all rush for the review box, Flare Corona. Now, as I mentioned in narration, Flare was going through masochism training and then being given the opportunity to turn the tide and become a sadist. I mean…have you SEEN the way she WALKS. That is just the look of someone who is not right in the head. I don't care if she apologized. Flare is still a PSYCHO! I actually, when I first penned this, did not intend to use Flare, but now that I really want to do a spin-off using Adventurer's Gauntlet, I think I figured *shrug* what the hell? So as you might imagine, Flare has been changed since she never learned how to be a sadist. And, remember, Flare is 7 years YOUNGER than in the Grand Magic Games arc. Only Team Natsu and the Tenrou Island group were affected by the no age change. Flare is still much younger so I felt that giving her the whole 3****rd**** Person person perspective would be fitting for someone who's reveling in their masochism [and there are people like that] and much more immature than she would be in seven years, so that's why she's doing that considering what referring to one's self in the 3****rd**** person means to the Japanese people. **

**Moving on, of course, what did you guys think of my OCs? Most specifically: Luciella, Sakina, Grimaios and Narzia. Stella doesn't count cause she was only in like one scene and you knew the others for a while. Yeah you didn't get to meet all of Adventurer's Gauntlet either so I'm saving that for the sequel. Kind of like how Banjo-Tooie was to Banjo-Kazooie, how the makers all left hints that, yes, we are making another one. If I make another one I'll probably title it "Adventurer's Gauntlet" plain and simple. **

**If you guys have any more questions leave a comment or a review. And…I'm done, not much more to say here. Later folks).**


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